Piaget (1962m 1970) believed that these logical errors reflect the slow and difficult challenge for preschool children as they gradually learn to think symbolically.Children can be read the story numerous times, and their rendition can still be filled with errors of content and logicPiaget refers to the period from 3-6 years of age as the preoperational stage of development. He uses the term "operational" to refer to the logical systems of thought which emerge in middle childhood.Incapable of advanced forms of reasoning, after age 6 then the child will be able toBy age 7-8, children understand that all horses are animals but not all animals are horseUnderstand that addition is the reverse of subtractionPiaget identified the end of the second year of life as a major turning point in cognitive development, marked by the advent of symbolic functionSymbolic function: ability to use symbols to represent or stand for perceived objects and eventsTakes several forms as child moves into 3rd year:Deferred imitation: observe behavior of a model/imitate that behavior when model is no longer present over relatively long periods of time; imitating behavior only when adaptive to do soSymbolic or pretend play: pretend that an object is something other than what it really is (“tea party” with fake food/drinks); unlimited world of make believe for childrenShifting context: performing routine behaviors outside of their typical setting (transforms abandoned car into kitchen mentally)Substituting objects: turn any objects into props they need for their episodes and become progressively less dependent on realistic props during preschool yearsMental images: internal representations of external objects or events; enable child to think of things when they are not physically presentPiaget believed that preschool-age children tend to focus their attention on minute and often inconsequential aspects of their experience, a process he referred to as centrationCollections of images, derived from centrated perceptions, merge into preconcepts (disorganized, illogical representations of the child’s experience); they may be relevant to topic but don’t all fit together in one thought sequentially; bits and pieces of the thoughtAccording to Piaget, the disorganized and illogical nature of preconcepts severely limits the quality of preschool-age children's reasoning and problem solvingPreoperational children are incapable of thinking inductively/deductively instead they think transductively:Induction: we derive general principles from particular examples; an 8 yr old who saw that teachers favor girls in his class may induce that girls are teachers petsDeduction: general principles to predict particular outcomes: the same child could use the general principle that when he enters his next grade that the new teacher will be likely to favor girlsTransductive: reasoning within the unsystematic collections of images which constitute their preconceptsDealing with this: work through sequences of events and show which one comes first; understand her perspective then show her yours; provide repetitive experience with real objects and events; reduce complexity to bite-size pieces; encourage explorationOne of the major limitations of preoperational thought is the child’s inability to conceptualize the perspective of other individuals= egocentrismAges 4-12 were shown 3-D model of mountain scene and asked child to examine it from different visual perspectives: children under 8 years old consistently identified their own views as that of the doll instead of recognizing that every time the doll moved there was a new perspective that is different than their own.Second Limitation is irreversibility: the notion that preschoolers cannot mentally reverse their transductive sequences of thoughtDifficult retracing paths; cant put things back together once they’ve taken them apart; find their way to distant locations but cant find their way back; & climbing to the stop of structures but cant get downLimitations can affect children’s reasoning in specific content domainsClassification: tendency to group objects on the basis of particular sets of characteristicsAdults classify based on class inclusion- class must be smaller than any more inclusive class in which it is contained (indoor/outdoor, fruits/vegetables, & automobiles/airplanes)Principles younger kids use to spontaneously classify objects Is different from adults; Piaget found a three stage developmental progressionStage 1: children (5 years and younger) has no overall plan for sorting but produced graphic collections (pictures made with objects)- put all rectangles together and call it a houseStage 2: children (6-8 years) sorted more organized, producing a series of collections of objects each based on a different dimension of objects (non-graphic collections);- put separate all circles and squares then sort those by size but couldn’t do this simultaneouslyStage 3: children (9-early adolescence) understand the relationship the rule of class inclusion; successfully classify using multiple dimensions- if they have 4 cows and 2 monkeys they understand that there are more animals than there are cowsSystematic classification happened earlier than Piaget originally thought: evidence that children begin to spontaneously sort objects into different categories by the end of the second yearQuantitative Reasoning: the ability to estimate the amount of things and changes in the amounts of things in terms of number, size, weight, volume, speed, time, and distanceWhen a 3 year old throws a ball, he needs to estimate how much force Is needed to project a ball a certain distanceQuantitative reason is reached when children become aware that things in nature exist in specific amounts and only change when you add/subtractQuantity: In Piaget’s work on conservation (certain attributes of objects and events may remain unchanged, despite transformations or changes in other attributes)Number: young preoperational children showed no understanding of 1:1 correspondence, responding only to the physical appearance of the rows (if one row was spread out it was judged to have more beans, if it was compressed then it was thought to have less beans); slightly older children show some understand of 1:1 correspondence but continue to be confused by the superficial appearance of rows; its not achieved until the stage of concrete operations at 7-8 years oldCounting: must be able to systematically
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