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- Key study: Piaget and Inhelder (1956) three mountains task
Key study: Piaget and Inhelder (1956) three mountains task
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Can a young child imagine what someone else can see? Piaget and Inhelder designed a clever task to find out.
Aim and procedure
Aim: to investigate the age at which children can take another person's viewpoint, and so are no longer egocentric.
Sample: 100 children aged 4 to 12.
Materials: a model of three mountains (about a metre square), each different (for example one had snow on top, one a house, one a red cross). A doll was placed at different positions around the model.
Procedure: children were tested in three ways:
1. Arrange cardboard shapes to show what the doll could see.
2. Choose from 10 pictures the one showing the doll's view.
3. Choose a picture and decide where the doll must sit to see it.
Sample: 100 children aged 4 to 12.
Materials: a model of three mountains (about a metre square), each different (for example one had snow on top, one a house, one a red cross). A doll was placed at different positions around the model.
Procedure: children were tested in three ways:
1. Arrange cardboard shapes to show what the doll could see.
2. Choose from 10 pictures the one showing the doll's view.
3. Choose a picture and decide where the doll must sit to see it.
Results and conclusion
Results: children aged about 4 to 6 usually showed their own view, not the doll's. Children aged about 7 to 9 tried to show the doll's view but were not consistent. Children aged about 9 to 12 could reliably show the doll's view.
Conclusion: children in the pre-operational stage are egocentric: they see their own viewpoint as the only one possible. The ability to take another's view develops in the concrete operational stage.
Conclusion: children in the pre-operational stage are egocentric: they see their own viewpoint as the only one possible. The ability to take another's view develops in the concrete operational stage.
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths: a standardised procedure (same model, doll positions and pictures) means it can be replicated to check the results. It used several methods to test the same ability, and gave both quantitative and qualitative data.
Weaknesses: the task was unfamiliar and artificial, so it may have underestimated children. Hughes (1975) used a more meaningful task (hiding a doll from policemen) and found most children aged 3.5 to 5 could take another's view. Matching a 3D model to 2D pictures may have been hard in itself.
Weaknesses: the task was unfamiliar and artificial, so it may have underestimated children. Hughes (1975) used a more meaningful task (hiding a doll from policemen) and found most children aged 3.5 to 5 could take another's view. Matching a 3D model to 2D pictures may have been hard in itself.
A 5-year-old chooses the picture showing her own view instead of the doll's. What does this show, according to Piaget?
- She cannot imagine the scene from another position.
- Piaget calls this egocentrism.
- Egocentrism is typical of the pre-operational stage (about 2 to 7).
Answer: She is egocentric, which Piaget says is typical of the pre-operational stage.
Piaget and Inhelder showed children a three-mountain model and asked what a doll could see. Children under about 7 chose their own view, showing egocentrism in the pre-operational stage. The method was standardised but artificial, and may have underestimated children.
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