Piaget Realized

Running head: Piaget Realized

Piaget Realized: Testing Piaget’s Preoperational Period

Derek D. Stamper

South Puget Sound Community College

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Piaget Realized

Abstract

The author studied one randomly selected three year-old male subject to test

whether or not the subject was exhibiting characteristics that match Piaget’s

preoperational stage. The author conducted six tests (three experiments using materials

and three series of interview questions) and made observations to test for classic

characteristics of preoperational children, including: centration, conservation of number,

class-differentiation, egocentric thinking, and reversibility. The author found that the

subject tested as Piaget would have predicted on four of the six tests, while one test

(centration with a water level task picture) had vague results, and one test (reversibility)

had different results than Piaget’s theory would predict. The author concludes that the

randomly selected three year-old subject is in Piaget’s preoperational stage.

Introduction

Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development suggests that if a child isn’t in

the appropriate stage of cognitive development for his age group then this could cause

adverse reactions for the child. These adverse reactions include negative self-esteem and

social reactions as well as possibility stunting a child’s cognitive growth in education

areas. The author is interested in learning whether or not the randomly selected subject is

in the preoperational thought stage as Piaget says he should be in for his age. The

author’s hypothesis is whether or not the subject displays characteristics that match

Piaget’s preoperational period.

The author will conduct six experiments to test Piaget’s theory about the

preoperational period and the author’s hypothesis. These experiments will test for

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Piaget Realized

characteristics of the preoperational stage such as centration, irreversibility, inability to

conserve, class-differentiation, and egocentric thought. The author will make sure the

subject uses verbal communication in these experiments instead of solely nonverbal

communication to maintain authenticity.

Method

The author conducted a total of six experiments with one randomly selected three

year-old male subject. Three of the experiments used tangible materials and three

experiments used only interview questions.

The first tangible experiment was designed to test for centration. The subject was

presented with a printed out picture of a water level task showing bottles in various

angles. The subject was handed a light blue colored pencil and instructed to draw in the

water line where he thought it would go.

The second tangible experiment was designed to test for conservation of number.

The author lined up ten pennies in two lines of five each. The lines were of the same

length with the pennies touching next to each other but not above/below. The subject

was asked which line had more pennies and to count them aloud and figure out which

line had more. After the subject came to the first conclusion of which line had more

pennies, the author rearranged the lines of pennies. The author spaced the second line of

pennies so that the line extended past the first line and the pennies did not touch next to

each other or the pennies above. The author then asked the subject which line had more

pennies, and to count them aloud to make sure.

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Piaget Realized

The third tangible experiment was designed to test for class-differentiation. The

subject was presented with a printed out drawing of apples and oranges colored with

colored pencils. The apples and oranges were randomly arranged and randomly spaced.

The picture had seven total oranges and nine total apples, for a total of sixteen apples and

oranges. The subject was asked to identify the apples and oranges as the first step. Next,

the subject was asked if apples were pieces of fruit. Then the subject was asked if

oranges were pieces of fruit. Lastly, the subject was asked which had more, “apples or

pieces of fruit?” The subject was asked to count aloud before picking his choice.

The first interview experiment was designed to test for egocentric thinking. The subject

was asked to retrieve his favorite stuffed animal, a stuffed dog with a stuffed Nemo the

fish attached, from his room. Once he retrieved it and returned to the testing area, the

author asked the subject how he felt about his toy. Once the subject answered, the author

asked if the subject’s mother felt the same about his toy. Next the author asked if the

subject’s friends at daycare felt the same way about his toy. Lastly, the author asked if

himself felt the same way about his toy.

The second interview experiment was designed to test for reversibility. The author

presented the subject with a red apple. The author asked the subject to identify the apple.

Once identified, the author asked the subject what happens when an apple is eaten. Next

the author proceeded to take a few bites of the apple and ask what happens when the

apple is bitten. Next the author asked the subject what would have happened if the author

had never taken a bite out of the apple.

The third interview experiment was designed to test for centration. The author

asked the subject questions about his mother, father, and animals. The author asked if the

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Piaget Realized

subject’s mother was his mother, then if she was someone’s sister. The author asked if

the subject’s father was the subject’s father, then if he was someone’s son. The author

asked if the subject’s mother was ever as little as the subject is right now, then asked if

the subject’s mother ever attended daycare like the subject does. Next the author asked

the subject if lions and cats were cats, then if wolves and foxes were dogs.

An additional material not otherwise stated above included a detailed printed

questionnaire of testing steps and interview questions.

Results

Centration

Fig 1. Water-level task picture.

The subject colored water lines at the tops of all the bottles with a light blue colored

pencil. Then he proceeded to use a red colored pencil water to color in the entire bottle.

The subject asked if the interviewer wanted to help him color in the bottles, and the

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Piaget Realized

author helped the subject color in bottle number two with the red colored pencil and the

subject added more when the author was finished.

Conservation of number

The author spaced out two lines of five pennies, totaling ten pennies. The pennies

were touching in line next to each other but not touching the line above/below. When

subject was asked which line had the most pennies and to count the pennies, he counted

the pennies with his finger aloud and claimed the top line had five pennies while the

bottom line only had four pennies. The author then spaced out the bottom line of pennies

so that it appeared longer than the top line of pennies. The author then asked the subject

which line had more pennies, and the subject claimed the second longer line had five

pennies while the top first line only had four pennies.

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Piaget Realized

Class-differentiation

Fig 2. Apples and oranges picture.

The subject was asked how many apples were present in the drawing. The subject

counted with his finger and claimed there were six apples on the entire page. He said that

the apples on the bottom line had the most, with four apples in a row. He counted with

his fingers again and said there were seven oranges on the entire page. When the subject

was asked which was more, apples or pieces of fruit (apples plus oranges), the subject

said there were more oranges on the page. The subject also acknowledged that there

were “a lot of apples”, too, but did not count them.

Egocentric thinking

The subject was asked how he felt about his favorite stuffed animal, and he expressed

sentiment towards it. When asked if the subject’s mother felt the same sentiments toward

his favorite stuffed animal, the subject insisted that she did. He also insisted that his

friends and the author felt the same sentiments toward his favorite stuffed animal.

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Piaget Realized

Reversibility

The subject claimed that the apple was “yummy” when eaten and claimed the same

when the author took a few bites and asked what happened when bites were taken out of

the apple. When asked what happens when you take a bite out of an apple, the subject

explained using hand gestures that the apple goes through your body. When the author

asked what would happen if the apple hadn’t been bitten into/eaten, the subject claimed

that the apple would become “yucky”. The subject said that an apple becomes “yummy”

because it’s being eaten, yet he acknowledged when asked that he’s eaten a “yucky”

apple and it’s been “good”.

Centration

The subject was unable to realize that his mother and father had different roles

besides being his parents. He was also unable to classify lions and tigers as cats,

although he acknowledged his housecat pet, Miranda, as a cat. He was also unable to

acknowledge wolves and foxes as dogs, yet acknowledge his grandmother’s dogs

Sebastian and Missy as dogs. This test had interesting results, and selected questions and

answers include,

Author: “Is [name withheld] your father?”Subject: “No, mom’s my father.”Author: “What about your daddy? Who’s your daddy?”Subject: “My dad’s [name withheld].”Author: “Is your daddy someone’s son?”Subject: “No.”Author: “Why not?”Subject: “’Cuz.”Author: Are lions and tigers cats?”Subject: “No.”

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Piaget Realized

Author: “Why not?”Subject: “They’re lions and tigers.”Author: “Is Miranda a cat?”Subject: “Yes.”

Discussion

The implications of the author’s findings indicate that the subject is in the

preoperational stage that Piaget says he should be according to his age. The subject did

as Piaget would predict in almost all the tests the author conducted. Surprising results

were shown, however, with the centration water test. Piaget would have said that the

subject would color the water lines within the bottle near all the bottoms of the bottle.

However, perhaps the subject misunderstood the question because the subject colored in

water lines at all the tops of the bottles, and then proceeded to color in the entire bottles

with a red colored pencil.

The experiment designed to test for reversibility had vague results. The subject

stated that an apple becomes “yucky” when it is not eaten, yet the subject acknowledged

that he had eaten a “yucky” apple before and that it was “yummy” when he ate it.

The author found predictable results in the other five tests conducted. The subject

exhibits classic characteristics of the preoperational stage, such as the inability to

conserve numbers, egocentric thinking, the inability to differentiate between classes, and

centration.

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