Elizabeth Marotti

ED340 M/1:30
Investigation #1
April 17, 2015
Investigation #1
For this investigation I met separately with three children of varying ages. I

did two exercises with each child and recorded their responses and reactions. The

responses of the children throughout the exercises suggests in which stage of

cognitive development each child is currently. I will describe below my encounters

with each of these children and my findings.

The first child in my investigation is a 9 year old girl whom I will refer to as

"Rosie". I began with two tall narrow containers and a pitcher of water. I poured

equal amounts of water into each of the tall containers and asked "Rosie" to confirm

that each container indeed held the same amount of water. After she confirmed that

the containers were the same, I poured the water from one of the containers into a

short wide container and asked her if this container contained the same amount of

water as the tall skinny one or if one container held more or less than the other.

"Rosie immediately pointed to the short container and began to say that this one

held less water but she cut herself off and sat back for a moment. Once she had

analyzed the containers for a few seconds she said with confidence that both

containers held the same amount of water. I asked her why she said that and she

responded "because you poured that same amount of water into that different

container cup thing".

Next, I placed five cards on the table. Each card had a different one-digit

number on it. I asked "Rosie" to use these cards to make as many three-digit

number combinations as possible. She began placing the cards into three-digit

combinations beginning with 532. She made 13 different combinations before she

made 532 again and then she was finished.

After reviewing Piaget's four stages of cognitive development my findings are

that "Rosie" is in the concrete operational stage with regards to conservation and

combinational logic. Although her initial reaction to the conservation exercise was
that the amount of liquid had changed, she quickly shifted her thinking and sat back

for a more logical evaluation of the situation. This shows that she was able to apply

reversibility to the task and differentiate between appearance and actuality. "Rosie"

demonstrated use of compensation and logical operations that place her in the

concrete operational stage of cognitive development. Although "Rosie" showed

signs of logical operations within the conservation exercise, when completing the

combinational logic exercise she showed that she was not capable of logical

reasoning which is normal for concrete operational children.

The second child I performed my investigation with is 7 years old. We will call

him "Johnny". I performed the exact same conservation of liquid task with "Johnny"

and he too confirmed that both tall containers held equal amounts of water. I

poured the liquid from one tall container to the short container and asked if the two

containers held the same or different amounts of liquid he quickly exclaimed that

they were both the same and went on to explain. "Because this one is fatter and

wide but it is not to the top but the wideness, you know, if it was as skinny as this it

would still be the same".

Next, I read "Johnny" two of Aesop's fables. After reading The Ant and the

Dove I asked "Johnny" what he thought the story meant and he said, "well like how

things react. Like if they get scared, like with the ant he stinged that guy on the foot

cause he was scared. Also how the dove flew away 'cause he got scared. So how

things react". After I read The Lion and the Mouse to "Johnny" he said that the

meaning of the story was this: "well there's two things I think it's about. Friendship

and recognizing recognizing like how the mouse recognized the lion's roar. And

um and like if you dont know something and like you dont think something can do

whatever like if someone is really in trouble and you dont think you can save them
like watch and see.Just cause someone is little doesn't mean they can't do

something. Just like me!"

The conservation of liquid exercise, "Johnny" too showed capacity for logical

operations as well as reversibility. He gave a clear explanation of why the water

appeared to be different volumes but why it was the same. This shows his ability to

apply reason and logic to the situation. Again, according to Piaget, this is a sign

concrete operational thinking. "Johnny's" interpretation of the stories I read for the

most part confirm that he is in the concrete operational stage of cognitive

development. However, after hearing the story of the Lion and the Mouse "Johnny's"

response did show signs of abstract thinking which, according to Piaget, is not

typical for concrete operational children.

The third child in my investigation is a 3 year old boy we will call "Will". I

separated a ball of play dough into to equal sized balls and asked "Will" if the balls

had the same amount of clay or if one had more. He confirmed that three balls had

the same amount. I then rolled one of the balls into a "snake" and asked again. He

said that the snake had more play dough. When I asked him why that one had more

he responded "because it's bigger". I could not get any more information out of him.
Next, I laid two rows of ten almonds parallel to one another and asked "Will" if

each row contained the same or a different number of almonds and he confirmed

that each row was the same. I then spread one row of almonds out and asked him

again. This time he was sure that the spread out row contained more almonds.
Although "Will" had watched me change the shape of the play dough and

spread out the almonds without adding any to either, he was still convinced that the

play dough "snake" and the spread out row of almonds both contained more than

they originally had. At "Will's" stage of preoperational thought, he is unable to

reverse the event to rationalize that the amounts of play dough and almonds had

not changed (irreversibility). "Will" also showed nontransformational reasoning for

both exercises as he was only focused on the original and final states of the play

dough and almonds rather than on the process. Additionally, centration is evident in

"will's" assumption that the spread out almonds contained more. He was focused on

the appearance of the spread out almonds and this caused him to assume that this

row contained more.