Topic > The Idea of ​​Conservation in Piaget's Cognitive Theory

Cognitive theory, developed by psychologist Jean Piaget, has influenced the fields of education and psychology. Piaget discovered four periods of cognitive development: the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operations stage, and the formal operations stage. During the preoperational phase, children between the ages of two and seven are characterized by the development and refinement of symbolic representation. It is during this stage that children begin to use their intuition. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayWhen infants begin to grow into toddlers and then toddlers, they begin to rapidly develop their cognitive abilities and essentially learn to think on their own. Children's understanding of symbols and numbers expands as they learn to identify what they look like, but they can only relate it to the world from their perspective. According to Piaget, children who are in the preoperational stage are strongly determined by the way things appear to them based on their intuition. Children have not fully developed their sense of logic, but they rely heavily on their intuition. Piaget created conservation task studies to exemplify how children perceive concrete operations through their logical thinking. The concept of conservation refers to the understanding that the properties of objects remain unchanged, even after any physical changes to those objects. Children in the preoperational stage may not be able to conceptualize the idea of ​​conservation, based on their learning development. If they can understand the idea of ​​conservation, then they excel at understanding that not all objects are concrete. To fully understand the concept, I performed a similar task to examine the extent of volume conservation in children. During a family gathering, I asked my six-year-old niece to help me with an assignment that required me to ask her questions. He eagerly agreed to help me with my assignment and was apparently thrilled to be able to help me. The studio environment was crowded with family members surrounding the area, but I made sure the task was done after dinner and when she was in a positive mood. While performing this task, there were no other children around to reduce the risk of influencing the outcome of the results. I used two identical glass mugs and one taller, narrower mug. For the first conservation I used the two identical glass cups that contained the same amount of water and placed them in front of her. I asked her if she thought the water glasses were the same size or if they were different sizes. He first responded by carefully examining the two cups and decided that they were the same. I proceeded to pour water from one of the identical cups into the narrower cup. I asked her if the glasses were different sizes or if they were the same. Once again, he examined the cups and pointed to the narrowest one, claiming that the glass held the most water. I continued to ask her why she thought the cup had more water in it. His response was that the tallest cup had a high water level. Then, I explained the different water levels between the two cups and pouring water from the narrow, taller cup into the smaller one. I repeated the task one more time and she was able to understand and explain what I had shown her. After performing the task and observing my granddaughter, it was obvious that she was in the preoperative stage. He was unable to understand..