Piaget's Stage Theory and the Three Mountains Task

How thinking develops

A two-year-old and a fifteen-year-old do not just know different amounts; they think in different ways. Thinking depends on the brain, which develops from its main parts:

Which part is damaged?

A patient is unsteady on their feet and reaches clumsily for objects, missing them by a small margin. Which part of the brain would you most suspect is damaged?

• The cerebellum
• The medulla
• The forebrain
• The midbrain

Schemas and how they grow

Piaget said we understand the world through schemas: mental frameworks, or "files", for ideas. Schemas grow in two ways, and the difference between them is a standard exam question. When our schemas make sense of the world we reach equilibrium: a settled understanding, which lasts until something new unsettles it again.

Fit in or change?

A child calls every four-legged animal "dog". They meet a cat and simply add it to their "dog" schema. What is this?

• Assimilation: fitting new information into an existing schema
• Accommodation: changing the schema
• Equilibrium
• Object permanence

Four stages of thinking

Piaget said all children pass through four stages, in the same order: - Sensorimotor (0 to 2): learns through the senses; develops object permanence, knowing a thing still exists when it is out of sight. - Pre-operational (2 to 7): egocentric, struggling to take another point of view, and lacks conservation. - Concrete operational (7 to 11): can conserve, and reason logically about real things. - Formal operational (11+): can reason abstractly and hypothetically, about things never seen. Conservation is the understanding that an amount stays the same when its appearance changes. Pour water from a short wide glass into a tall thin one and a child who lacks conservation will insist there is now more.

The stages in order

Put Piaget's four stages into order, from youngest to oldest.

• Sensorimotor (0 to 2 years)
• Pre-operational (2 to 7 years)
• Concrete operational (7 to 11 years)
• Formal operational (11 years and older)

Four children

A baby of eighteen months lifts a blanket to find the toy she watched being hidden, so she has object permanence and is in the _____ stage. A five-year-old insists the tall thin glass holds more water than the short wide one it came from, so he is still _____. A nine-year-old works out that pouring it back would give exactly the same amount, which puts her in the _____ operational stage. And a fourteen-year-old who can argue about what WOULD happen in a situation he has never seen has reached the _____ operational stage.

The Three Mountains Task

To test young children, Piaget and Inhelder used the Three Mountains Task. A child sat at a model of three mountains, and a doll was placed at a different side. The child was asked to choose a picture of what the DOLL could see. Young children chose the view they themselves could see. Piaget concluded this showed egocentrism: an inability to take somebody else's point of view. Be precise about what it tested. It is a perspective-taking task, so it is evidence about egocentrism and nothing else. Conservation is a separate idea, tested with the glasses of water.

Mark the claims

Five statements about Piaget's theory. Tap the TWO that are WRONG.

• In the Three Mountains Task, young children chose the view they themselves could see rather than the doll's.
• The Three Mountains Task was designed to test whether children could conserve.
• Object permanence develops during the sensorimotor stage.
• Assimilation means changing a schema when new information will not fit into it.
• Piaget claimed all children pass through the four stages in the same order.

Working out a stage

A psychologist observes a five-year-old. Reason out which Piagetian stage the child is in.

• The child watches water poured from a short wide glass into a tall thin one and says there is now MORE water. What do they lack?
• The child also cannot describe how the table looks to someone sitting opposite. What is that?
• Lacking conservation and being egocentric, which stage is the child in?

Strengths and weaknesses

Piaget's theory was hugely influential. It established that children think differently from adults rather than simply knowing less, and that they learn by actively doing, which transformed how primary classrooms are run. The criticisms are worth knowing precisely. Critics argue he underestimated children: when later researchers repeated his ideas using simpler, more familiar tasks, children succeeded years earlier than he had claimed. Others argue the stages are not as fixed as he suggested, with far more variation between children than the neat age bands imply.

What does the evidence show?

Later researchers tested perspective-taking with a simpler, more familiar task: hiding a doll from a toy policeman. Children as young as three succeeded. Which criticism of Piaget does this support?

• That he underestimated children, because his own tasks were harder than the ability they were meant to measure
• That his four stages are in the wrong order
• That schemas do not really exist
• That his theory had no influence on education

Evaluate the theory

Evaluate Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Give reasoned arguments on both sides and reach a justified conclusion.

• Give one strength, and say what it changed about how children are taught
• Give one weakness, and explain WHY it is a weakness rather than just stating it
• Refer to evidence for at least one of your points
• Conclude by saying how far the theory should still be trusted, and why

Piaget summary

Piaget said children pass through four stages. A _____ is a mental framework; fitting new information into one is _____, while changing it is accommodation. In the pre-operational stage children are _____, as the Three Mountains Task showed. Abstract reasoning appears in the _____ operational stage.