Broke Study (development)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To rexamine Piaget’s mountain study to determine the validity of egocentrism in young children.

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

• Participants aged 3-4 years old and mostly white
• Important: There were two copies of each display: one in front of Grover, one in front of the child. Story: Grover is driving by this scene and stops to take a look, can you show me what Grover sees?
• Training: Child shown a firetruck, introduced to Grover sitting on a different part of the table. Child told to rotate their firetruck so they saw it the same way as Grover.
• During training, mistakes were corrected
• 1st mistake: researcher and child would get up, move to Grover, check out his POV
• 2nd mistake: researcher moved the display to the correct position
• Assessment portion of experiment:
• Phase 1: simple scene with toys, Phase 2: Three mountain task, Phase 3: complicated scene with toys
  
  • Mistakes were not corrected in these phases

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

• All subjects were highly accurate in their prediction of Grover’s POV on the two scenes containing toys
• Children made significantly more errors in the prediction of Grover’s POV on the three mountain task
• From errors made only ⅓ were egocentric, slightly over ⅔ were random
• Provides critique for Piaget’s stages of development as most 3 to 4 year olds could accurately take the POV of Grover, suggests that the three mountain task was too difficult (lacked internal validity)

Question 4

Strengths

Answer 4

• n comparison with other experiments that used photos or models that the child had to make, the displays were easier for children to use (children find it hard to transition from a 2-D image to a 3-D display)

Question 5

Limitations

Answer 5

• Scaffolding was used, unlike Piaget
  
  • May have taught subjects how to do the task, not clear if they actually understand POV
• Sampling bias: taken from an American university, mainly White children of students (¼ from surrounding neighborhood)

Question 6

Ethical Considerations

Answer 6

• Informed consent (parental consent)
• Protection from harm
  
  • not criticized for mistakes

Question 7

Research Method

Answer 7

Experiment