Pigliets

Orlando Alva

Psychology I

May 5, 2009

PIAGET’S COGNITIVE THEORY

Conservation: In Piaget’s theory, the understanding that two equal quantities remains equal even though the form of appearance is rearranged, as long as nothing is added or subtracted.

I have two nieces, Kayla is 5 and Naty is 7 years old.

I asked them to stand in front of my dinner table where I had two glasses of the same size, one filled with grape juice and the second one with apple juice. Both glasses had the same amount of liquid in it.

I asked Kayla to look at them and tell me if they had the same amount of juice. She looked for about a minute and said yes!

I went to Naty and asked her the same question. She took less than 5 seconds and told me yes as well.

I asked the girls to step outside the room so I could change one of the glasses for a glass cylinder, 5 inches taller than the glass next to it. Once I had poured the liquid inside the cylinder I called the girls back into the room.

This time I asked Kayla to look careful and tell me if both containers had the same amount of liquid and after carefully looking at them she said the taller cylinder had more juice.

I asked Naty the same question and this time she took more than a minute, taking a really close look to both containers and all of the sudden she told me both had the same amount of juice and after than she asked me what were they getting as a reward in answering my question.

They got to drink the juice of course.

Just as Piaget explained in his theory, my 7 years old niece was in the concrete operational stage.

It was very amazing to conduct this exercise with my nieces because I got to prove Piaget’s theory.