Psychological Experiments On Children's Cognitive Development

I had the pleasure to interview two children for this interview assignment project. I interviewed my neighbor Gaby, who is 11 years old and my other neighbor Collin, who is 8 years old. Piaget acknowledged that some children may pass through the stages at different ages than the averages noted above and that some children may show characteristics of more than one stage at a given time (Koocher). After interviewing these two I believe this quote is a true statement because Gaby is 3 years older than Collin and during her questionnaire she had more intellectual abilities on the experiments than him. I assume if Gaby was Collin’s age she would have less knowledge on the experiments due to complex of understanding of the world.
The first experiment was a conservation of number task to test the children’s cognitive development using Piaget’s theory. To start off this experiment, I traced ten dimes on red construction paper and ten on blue construction paper. I cut them out and placed the red on top and the blue on the bottom. Gaby said there was the same number of circles. I spaced out the blue cut outs and asked her if she thought there was more or the same. Her response was the same because I had only spaced out them out. On the other hand, when I asked Collin if they were the same amount or more, at first he said there were the same, then when I spaced out the blue cut outs, his response was that there were more. I asked him where did more come from he sat there in silence and shrugged his shoulders. The second experiment was another conservation of liquid task to test children’s cognitive development using Piaget’s theory. I measured water with green food dye in a measuring cup and I placed the same amount in two identical glasses. To the side of me, I had another glass, but this one was wider and smaller than the other two. First, I showed Gaby the two identical glasses with the same amount and asked her if they had the same or more. She responded that they were the same. I poured one of the glasses into a wider glass and asked her the same question. She knew right away that it was the same amount. She laughed and said, “Are you trying to trick me?” It was Collin’s turn to try the experiment. I showed him the identical glasses and he said they had the same amount. I poured one into the wider glass and asked him if the two had the same or if one had more. He stayed quiet and looked at both all puzzled. He said the thin, taller one had more, but it sounded like he was asking it as a question. I clarified to him why it was the same and he said that he totally “knew” but he wasn’t sure. Onto the third experiment which was a classification of groups task. For both children, I cut out big and small triangles, circles and squares using some colors of red, blue, and yellow. I asked Gaby to put them in different groups. She decided to put the colors together. I asked her if there was another way, and she put them in shapes. I asked Collin if he could put the pile of shapes in groups and he separated them by color. I asked him if he could group them in a different way. Then, he grouped them in shapes. …show more content…
I asked Gaby which one had more and she said red. I asked her if we made two trains of red skittles and blue skittles which one would be longer? She said the red train.
The second part of this project was to test the children’s development using Kohlberg’s theory. I told Gaby the Kohlberg’s classic Heinz dilemma. Gaby’s response was that Heinz did the right thing by stealing the medicine for his wife to be in good health. I told her that stealing is illegal and she said that in certain situations it MAY be alright to do so. Collin’s response was total opposite and said the husband was in the wrong for stealing the medicine because “stealing is bad and then you’d go to