Thursday, 15 January 2015

Formal operational stage



Summary
  • Appears around age 11, Piaget believed that everyone reached the stage by age 20
  • however, some argue that only about 1/3 of the population reach this stage
  • Cognition can be more abstract and does not have to use objects as models for abstract things.
  • e.g. if A>B>C then A>C
  • Problem-solving does not have to use trial-and-error, but can done through thoughts, using logical thinking (Salkind, 2004).
  • This logical way of thinking is called inferential reasoning- thinking about things you have not experienced and draw conclusions from this reasoning


Experiment conducted by Piaget
  • Evaluated cognitive abilities of children (different ages)
  • Task: balance scale by hooking weights to the two end of the scale
    • Children have to use formal operational thought to realize two factors affect balance:
      • Heaviness of weights
      • Distance from center
  • 3-5 years olds didn’t comprehend idea of balancing
  • 7 year olds could balance the scale by placing weights on the ends, but they didn’t realize that it was important to vary the location
  • 10 year olds could think about location, but used trial and error instead of logic
  • 13-14 year olds (some) understood relationship between weight & distance


Videos
Super advanced and well-made video about the FOS
Longer video for the super interested:

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