Developmental psychology.pdf

70 The Human Organism
Sensorimotor Period
From birth to 18 or 24 months of age, according to Piaget, young children often do
not think in the sense that older ones do. They are concerned not with thinking about
things but rather with experiencing them. Piaget called this intelligence "practical intelligence."
Specifically, he called this stage of cognitive development the sensorimotor
period because the child merely senses things and acts upon them.
Lack of Symbols Infants of this age seemingly do not conceive of objects as havmg
any permanent, independent existence apart from their own experience with them.
Infants do not seem to carry around in their heads the symbols or images of objects;
they have no representational ability. Adults know that if they put an object in a drawer
it continues to exist, but babies seem to think otherwise. Or at least they show no
memory of that object. Apparently at this age, an object ceases to exist when one is
not looking at it, handling it, or otherwise acting upon it.
When Piaget dangled a rattle in front of his daughter's face, six-month-old
Jacqueline wriggled with delight. But when he hid it under a blanket as she watched,
she immediately lost interest.
Achieving Object Permanence A few months later Jacqueline behaved differently,
as did Gerard when his ball rolled under an armchair. Gerard retrieved it with difficulty,
and when it rolled under the sofa, he looked there, too. When he could not find the
ball, he crossed the room and explored under the armchair, where the ball was previously.
Gerard had acquired object permanence, which is the understanding that an object
continues to exist even when it is not directly available to the senses (Piaget, 1954).
This understanding of the object as a permanent, independent entity marks
the end of the sensorimotor period, a step that is enormously important because it
permits children to represent to themselves objects not immediately present. They need
not act on something in order for it to exist in their minds. Children can carry images
of rattles, balls, and other things in their heads, which is perhaps the beginning of
thinking.
How does this change take place? No one knows for certain, but social influences
may play an important role. The object about which the helpless infant is most
concerned is the mother, or caretaker, and toward the middle of the sensorimotor period
the infant first becomes upset in the caretaker's absence, showing signs of object
permanence in the search for her whereabouts (Coates, Anderson, & Hartup, 1972).
Figure 3.10
The Three Mountains Test. The
model is appoximately 1 meter in
length and width. Seated at position
\ A the child sees in the foreground a
green mountain with a little house on
top. Slightly behind and to the left is
a higher, brown mountain with a red
cross on its summit. The tallest
mountain is in the background,
colored gray, with snow on its peak.
While at position A, the child is asked
to indicate by various means the
perspectives at positions В, С, and D
(Piaget & Inhelder, JJ367).
Preoperational Thought
Gradually the child's representational abilities become more sophisticated and, most
important, children learn to use language to communicate ideas to others. With normal
environmental stimulation they become social beings, although by adult standards
children still have serious deficiencies in thinking. During this stage, called the preoperational
period, the child still does not understand the use of symbols and basic
operations. The child is preoperational throughout most of the preschool years, from
age 18 or 24 months to age six or seven years.
Concept of Egocentrism Preoperational thought is characterized as egocentric
thought because the child is unaware of other perspectives. For example, in perceptual
egocentrism preschoolers do not realize that other people see things from a viewpoint
different from theirs. A young girl, playing hide-and-seek, shuts her eyes and says "Ha,
ha! Can't see me!"
• , In one experiment, a child was seated at a table that held a model of some
mountains. Seated at this same table but in a different chair was a doll. The child's
taskWs to select from a series of pictures the one that represented4he way the mountains
looked from the doll's viewpoint (Figure 3.10). The child could walk around and