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Illustration of Piagetian Concepts in Preschoolers describe interview with child in

regard to typical limitations of preoperational thinking, such as egocentrism, animism,

irreversibility, and artificialism.

From age two until around the age of seven children are in the second stage of Piaget’s

theory of cognitive development, the preoperational stage. Children tend to think

symbolically, but they still lack the use of certain cognitive operations. The child cannot use

deductive logic, combine, separate or transform ideas (Piaget, Cook, 1951,1952). According

to Piaget, a majority of the child’s development will consist of experience gathering, through

interactions and adaptions within the world. This later expands to include attempts to use

logical thought. The end of the preoperational stage accentuates the child’s ability to mentally

represent certain events and objects, and also to participate in symbolical play. This paper will

discuss the preoperational development of a seven-year-old child, through the analysis of an

interview conducted between myself and the child.

The first cognitive limitation I will explore is egocentrism. It is widely accepted that a

child in the preoperational stage has a “self-centered view of the world” (Smith, Cowie,

Blades, 2003), which can be understood as the child having difficulties perceiving situations

from other people’s perspectives. This notion tends to present itself through the inability of

the child to comprehend that different people see things differently. The test that Piaget used

to evaluate egocentrism was the three mountains task (Piaget, Inhelder, 1956).

When the child was interviewed, they did not present any substantial characteristics of

egocentrism. The reply to my first question indicates that the child is capable of considering

my personal knowledge of themselves and so they implied that the question was unnecessary

(“You already know how old I am”). Furthermore, in question three the child showed even

more awareness of different people’s perspectives. While the child was unable to answer the
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question, they did understand that their older sister knew the answer. The child understood

that she did not know the answer, but that did not mean that no else knew it as well (“you

gotta ask Yaya”). This indicates that the child can conceive of other people having more

knowledge on certain topics when compared with themselves. The child, however, is not

completely free from egocentrism. The second question, about who taught them to speak was

responded with "from my Momma". This does represent a certain egocentrism in the sense

that the most prominent figure in the child's life is, of course, the Mother, through the

maternal bond that is shared between them. The child's answer, therefore, is indicative of who

it was that they felt most important to them, despite learning to speak from a variety of inputs.

The next limitation that will be examined is animism. Animism is the concept that

inanimate objects (trees, grass, clouds) are capable of having human emotions and

interactions. This is a sort of anthropomorphism in the mind of the child. Piaget (1929)

claimed that a child in the preoperational state views the world of inanimate objects as being

alive, conscious and as having some purpose. The child in this interview displays traits of

animism combined with artificialism, which is the belief that the external world and

environment are created by people. Question number six indicates this mix of animism and

artificialism. The child responds, “Because God gets angry”. This assumes that the rain has an

ulterior purpose and is a function of God’s behaviors. The child also believes that the world

has been created and lives through the acts of God. These characteristics indicate, to a certain

extent, that the child still presents some level of animism and artificialism. This is further

represented in questions ten and eleven. The child believes that their toes were created

because they wanted them (this is egocentric) and were created (artificialism) with that

purpose in mind. Question eleven, further emphasizes these cognitive states, as the child uses

God to explain their answers (“Lord tell me the answer”) and represents the artificialism (as
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they believe ticklishness was created by God) and animism (the idea that the ticklishness has

a purpose). These questions highlight how the notions of animism and artificialism can

manifest through the concept of God.

The child still presents traits of transductive reasoning, the lack of understanding

between true cause and effect (Santrock, 2008), but the child is not limited by irreversibility.

This is seen in the child's answer to question three, the child believes that the sun goes behind

the houses at night. This is, of course, a form of transductive reasoning, the sun disappears

behind the houses therefore, that is where it must be. However, the child does understand the

concept of reversibility, that, when the sun sets (behind the houses) it will then also rise from

behind the houses. This shows that the child can connect the relationship between the reverse

action (the sun setting) to the consequent action (the sun rising). Transductive reasoning is

further seen in question five. The result (dogs barking) is a result of the dogs seeing people.

Of course, dogs may bark for manifold reasons, but the child has made the connection that

when dogs bark it is due to the human presence.

In conclusion, the child is on the cusp of the preoperational stage and so, still displays

the characteristics that would be expected. However, they are not as strong as they would be

in an earlier stage. For example, while the child is capable of being non-egocentric, they still

have some inherent biases towards that position. The child also does not fully present

interpretations of animism and artificialism as these are traits that have been, essentially,

taught through the explanation of God. But the child, nevertheless, accepts these explanations,

indicating those very limitations. Finally, the child is still hindered by transductive reasoning

but presents characteristics which would indicate that irreversibility is not a strong limitation

within their mind.

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References:

1. Piaget, J. (1929). The child's concept of the world. Londres, Routledge & Kegan Paul.

2. Piaget, J. (1951). Egocentric thought and sociocentric thought. J. Piaget, Sociological

studies, 270-286.

3. Piaget, J., & Cook, M. T. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. New York,

NY: International University Press.

4. Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1956). The Child's Conception of Space. London: Routledge

& Kegan Paul.

5. Santrock, J.W. (2008). A Topical Approach To Life-Span Development (pp.211-216).

New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

6. Smith, P., Cowie, H., & Blades, M. (2003). Understanding children’s development

(4th ed.). Malden: Blackwell Publishing.Subrahmanyam, K., Kraut, R. E., Greenfield,

P. M., & Gross, E. F. (2000). The impact of home computer use on children’s

activities. Children and Computer Technology, 10(2), 123-144.