Experimenter Spread Out The Yellow Counters example essay topic

Abstract This investigation explores whether the children have developed their perception skills by classifying them as non conservers or conservers. Using counters in one row which are brought closer together to form a cluster it shows that in a five year old the visual impression of a long row of counters overrides the numeral equality that was obvious when the counters appeared in matching rows - non conservers (1). For seven year olds numerical equality is more significant than visual impression and they are thus termed conservers (1). Introduction Conservation is the realization that quantity or amount does not change when nothing has been added or taken away from an object or a collection of objects, despite changes in its form or the spatial arrangement (1). Piaget's theory says at the concrete operational stage of development, children are between the ages of seven and eleven years old should develop the concept of conservation. Piaget realized that maturing children progressively master different types of conservation as they reason about their world.

In this experiment counters were used to determine if the child could grasp it was spatial arrangement not quantity that had changed, therefore either being a conserver, non conserver or an intermediate (4). According to Piaget, a student's ability to solve conservation problems depends on an understanding of three basic aspects of reasoning: identity, compensation, and reversibility. With identity the student realizes that material remains the same if nothing is added to or subtracted from the material. With compensation, the student realizes that changes in one dimension can be offset by changes in another. With reversibility, the student realizes that a change may be cancelled out by mentally reversing the steps and returning to the origin. Children begin to think logically, classify on several dimensions and understand mathematical concepts thus achieving conservation by assimilation and accommodation (8, 10).

There are four stages of Piaget's theory: the sensorimotor stage (birth until two), the preoperational state (two until about six or seven), the concrete operational stage (six or seven until eleven or twelve), and the formal operation stage (eleven or twelve through adulthood) (8, 11, 12). Method To demonstrate conservation of number ten black and ten yellow counters were used. Eight children from local primary schools were tested at the school, their names and ages are as follows: Name Age Carrie seven years and ten months Cherie Eight years and eight months John Eight years and three months Roham seven years and six months Nadelie Seven years and seven months Thomas seven years and six months Samantha Six years and two months Sarah five years and six months Each experiment with each child consisted of three stages: 1) Establishment of equivalence, 2) Re-arrangement of the counters which does not involve a change in neither number or quantity, 3) Repetition of the question about the equivalence of number and quantity. The experimenter puts out seven black counters in a row and asks the child to pair them up with a yellow counter one to one correspondence and asks them to check there are equal numbers of each. The two rows of counters are of the same length. The experimenter then spreads the yellow counters out in an elongated row and asks if there are now more in one row or the same number of counters in the two rows.

The experimenter then compresses the yellow row of counters and asks if there are now more in one row or the same number of counters in the two rows. At some point in the experiment the experimenter introduces a counter-suggestion saying she knew a boy / girl who said there were more / the same. Results and Discussion Two conservers were observed in the results of this test: Roham and Thomas. Roham came across as very attentive; he made a lot of eye contact as he listened to instructions. When the yellow row was spread out he said "you only spread 'em out" and when the yellow row was compressed he said "you only spread 'em in". Even when the experimenter asked questioned this he was very strong and definite in his answer and said "yes".

Thomas' explanation for the compressed yellow row was "but you only made them smaller". He immediately compresses the black himself, showing he has a firm grasp of conservation of number. In the face of counter-suggestion that there are more counters in one row, Roham replied "you didn't put anymore in. You didn't take them and put them there". This simple explanation and tone of his voice shows sound understanding with no doubt in his mind. Thomas rejects the counter-suggestion, that there is less in the compressed yellow line, "they thought that 'cause it was spread out there were more, but you used two sevens and there were three left over on your pile and three left over on my pile".

They are both conservers, and this is consistent with the other conservation experiment. This agrees with Piaget's theories as they are in the period of concrete operations and their perception skills seem to have developed fully. According to Piaget we see the onset of concrete operations in children between six and seven. During this stage, logical structures become available, as do structures for striation (putting things in order in terms of length or some other dimension), conservation of physical quantities, and mathematical operations on numbers (5). With Cherie when the experimenter spread out the yellow counters she was not sure but said that the yellow counters were more because "they are spaced out".

Cherie rarely made eye contact with the experimenter, and looked down a lot which suggested she was unsure of what she was saying. She eventually showed that she knew if you add more to the black counters there would be more than the yellow ones, so finally she came to the solution to space out the black counters more. I would say she is border-line between intermediate and conserver. Carrie showed she understood the initial instructions of pairing up the counters by nodding, maintaining eye contact and easily completed the task. The experimenter spread out the yellow counters and Carrie said "there's more in the yellow". She found it more difficult when the yellow counters were compressed and she scratches her head.

To return the counters back to normal she said "those (black) are all spread out and those (yellow) are all squashed up, let them have a bit of space". With the counter suggestion she agreed that if you compress the counters both rows will still have the same number. At first she was a non-conserver but in the face of counter-suggestion she became intermediate. Nadelie seemed a little unsure of what she was saying so at the beginning she cautiously paired up the counters. When the experimenter spread the yellow counters she asks which row has more, and she replies "the yellow ones got more, they are wide out."Spread the black ones out to make them the same."If you put one more then you need one more of the other type". She is not consistent with her thoughts as when the yellow row of counters was compressed she said that both rows were not the same and more yellow counters were needed.

She agreed with the counter-suggestion that adding more yellow counters meant that there were more yellow than black, but she did not know why. I would also class Nadelie as intermediate. They all showed that they were not sure what the answer was but with the counter-suggestion they reached the conclusion that the difference was spatial and not number. Cherie is eight years old and so should have concrete operations, but as she is intermediate she may have slightly late onset of these operations. Carrie and Nadelie could be considered to be in the preoperational stage as they are seven years old so on the borderline.

Sarah believes the yellow line is longer and the black is shorter to begin with. She says, so she moves to spread out the black counters. She does not agree with the counter-suggestion that the yellow compressed row has fewer counters. She knows it was the spacing out of the counters and not the number of counters which was different.

She does not agree with the counter-suggestion that there are more yellow counters in the spaced out row. I would classify her borderline intermediate / non conserver. This is slightly consistent with the other conservation task where she was found to be a non conserver. She is only five years old so according to Piaget's theory she will not have yet fully developed her perception skills and is in the preoperational stage (9). John came across as very talkative, and tried to explain everything that he thought. He did not know what the objects were called but he explained he knew he can play with them.

He easily paired the counters up. He counted to check that there was the same number of each. He shook his head when asked if the spread out row had the same number of counters as the black. When the yellow counters were compressed he said that the black had less.

He did not agree with the counter-suggestion that there is the same number of counters the whole time; therefore he is a non conserver. In other experiments he was found to be a non conserver with conservation of continuous quantity and he did have grasp of class inclusion, therefore he cannot understand the concept of conservation but does understand classification. He is eight years old and so, according to Piaget, should have a grasp of concrete operations. Samantha spoke very quietly and came across very shy.

The experimenter questioned whether there is the same number of counters to begin with, and she cautiously says "yes there is the same number". Actually there are one too many black counters and she agrees to take one out. The experimenter spread the yellow row out and Samantha did not know which had more. The experimenter then compressed the yellow row and she said that the "yellows are not in a straight line so there are more in the black ones". She agreed with the counter-suggestion that the yellow compressed row had less counters because "the yellows are not in straight line". The experimenter asked her how she would make the number of counters of each colour equal - she adds a yellow counter.

She is very inconsistent in her judgement and does not focus on the number of counters in the line but more on whether it is in a straight line. I would classify her as a non-conserver. This is consistent with her results from the other experiments. This agrees with Piaget's theory as she is still very young, six years old, and so her perception skills have not yet developed (9). I did not find the experimenter to be consistent with each child, as she gave Nadelie's counter-suggestion is completely different to everyone else's. This means that it may have thrown Nadelie off the most and so it would not be fair to compare her results with everyone else.

However the experimenter is consistent with the actual tasks and questions she asks, for example, "have you got some counters left over? Let's put them between us". It may be difficult to conduct this experiment with children as they may not have the vocabulary to explain what they think and so we may not be able to accurately determine whether they have developed their perception skills or not. It was apparent that some of the children were struggling with how to explain why they thought what they did (2, 3, 6, 7).

Bibliography

1. Introduction To Psychology, Atkinson & Hilgard's, Thomson Wadsworth, 2002 2.
web 3. web 4. web 5. web 6. web 7. web 8. Voy at, Gilbert E. (1982).
Piaget Systematized. The City College of The City University of New York, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc Publishers. 9. Thomas, R. Murray. (1979).
Comparing Theories Of Child Development. Wadsworth Publishing Company. 10. Saunders, R. & Bingham-Newman, Ann M. (1984).
Piaget Perspect. Prentice-Hall Inc. 11. Linen, Lynn S. (1983).
Piaget And The Foundations Of Knowledge. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc Publishers. 12. Piaget, J. (1980).