Piaget's Cognitive Development Stuff

Bob Thompson and non-verbal tests of conservation:

Issue: when they do traditional test, they say "are they the same?" or "are they equal?". It really begs the questions of what does "same" and "equal" mean. Different color M&M's, etc.

2nd Issue: helping people understand use of habituation in baby stuff.

Demo: Conservation - Scale and washer:

Do the old style conservation of mass (2 balls of clay), put them on scale to show they are the same, then when flattening the one, slip a washer into clay, cover it up, put back on scale (it is now heavy).

1st Measure: You can ask: "Will they still weigh the same? Will the scales balance?

2nd Measure is amount of reaction when the scales DON'T balance. You can compare this to using habituation with babies.

3rd Measure: "Do you change your answer based on what you saw?" If you really believe in conservation, you assume scale is messed up, or the person's cheated. Shows difference between HAVING ability and USING or RELYING on ability.

Issue: Formal operational

they approach problems different, can consider different possibilities, concrete operational rules oriented, rules are based on past experience.

Demo: Third Eye

Make little clay 3rd eye, and show to class.

Tell them "This a third eye that works like the other 2. "

• Concrete op kids (e.g. 4th grade), they will come up with lots of rules why it won't work, etc., you've got to come up with technical explanation.
• Formal op (12-13 yrs, 7th/8th): As soon as you tell them, their eyes light up and they're chattering with friends about possibilities, they're excited.

Ask "Where would you put this eye?"

• Concrete op (4th): put it where 3rd eye is, because that's where eyes go. Or if they put it somewhere else, because they've seen it in a superhero...
• Formal op (12-13 yrs, 7th/8th): They put it all over the place, behind the head, in their hands, etc.

Ask "Why did you put it there?"

• Concrete: that's where eyes go.
• Formal op (12-13 yrs, 7th/8th): Can talk about how it would be useful for these things here, but might be better over here. They can imagine the effects of many different possibilities.

Potential Projects:

Look thru libraries/bookstores, check out which books appeal to which age kids, and what that shows about how they are thinking. Perhaps take stories about animals, and see if Concrete Op kids have grouping, description oriented, whereas Pre-Op have fantasy stories, lots of strange stuff, and Formal Op have strange fantasy stuff, but once first premise, it makes sense from there - Black Beauty....

Formal Op: like sci-fi, many possible worlds, but look at effects of them. Similar to Pre-Op in that they're willing to accept the first premise, but then they want it to be consistent. Pre-Op kids, anything goes.

Concrete Op: like order, categorizing things.