The Intuitive Period

1
The Intuitive Period

• Conservation

2
Starter 10 mins

• Define the 3 following terms with examples
• Egocentrism
• Animism
• Centration
• Devise a less culturally biased way to test
  egocentrism than the 3 mountains task?

3
Errors In Judgement

• In the latter period of the pre-op stage children
  are heavily influenced by the appearance of
  objects.

4
Conservation

• The characteristic errors in thought, especially
  egocentrism, begin to decline.
• However, children are still unable to perform
  mental operations- such as conservation.
• Conservation is the ability to understand that
  redistributing material does not affect its mass,
  number or volume

5
What did Piaget do?

• Conservation of Mass
• Piaget gave a child two equal measures of
  modelling clay and asked if there was the same
  amount in both.
• On getting the answer same, he rolled out one
  of the balls into a long sausage and asked the
  same question again.
• The Preoperational child is likely to say that
  there is more clay in the sausage.

6

• Conservation of Number
• Piaget counted out 2 sets of 6 beads, and put
  them into 2 parallel lines of equal length.
• After asking whether one row has more beads than
  the other or whether they are the same, and
  getting the expected answer, he spread one row
  out so that it is longer.
• The pre-op child is likely to respond that there
  are more in the longer row.

7

• Conservation of Volume
• Piaget and Szeminska (1941)
• Aim
• To find out at what age children conserve volume.
• Method
• The researchers presented the children with 2
  identical beakers filled up to the same level
  with water. They asked each child whether there
  was the same amount of water in the two beakers
  or more in one than the other.

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• Most children said the same.
• The researchers then poured the water from one
  beaker into a third, taller, thinner beaker. The
  previous question was repeated.
• Results
• Most children under 7 years said that there was
  more water in the taller, thinner beaker. (They
  failed to conserve)
• In contrast, most children aged 7 and over
  answered that there was the same amount in both
  beakers.
• The researcher asked the child to explain their
  answer to be sure of understanding

9

• Conclusion
• There must be a very significant change in
  cognitive ability at around 7 years on average.
• When the ability to conserve is achieved the
  child enters the stage of Concrete Operations.

10
Plenary

• As a group Mind Map the Preoperational stage
  including both periods.
• Discuss the problems with the experiments within
  this stage and identify some problems with the
  designs.