The false belief task

Preoperational stage

Vocabulary

Pretend – воображать, представлять (один объект в роли другого), притворяться, делать вид

Pretend = engage in an imaginative game or fantasy (Example: children pretending to be grown-ups)

Acquire – приобретать, овладевать (навыком и т. п.)\ Limitations [ˌlɪmɪ'teɪʃ(ə)n] ограниченность

the natural limitation of our faculties — естественная ограниченность наших способностей

to know one's own limitations — знать, правильно оценивать свои возможности

limitation - a condition of limited ability; a defect or failing. \ cognitive stage – стадия развития интеллекта

mental image – умственный образ

increasing увеличивающий; увеличение; возрастающий; растущий

thought [θɔːt] – (от think) мышление; \ gain - прирост, рост, увеличение

apparent [ə'pær(ə)nt] 1) видимый, видный 2) очевидный, явный;

imaginative [ɪ'mæʤɪnətɪv]- одарённый богатым воображением, творческий, оригинальный

symbolize ['sɪmb(ə)laɪz] изображать символически\ mentally - мысленно; умственно; психически; в уме

imitate ['ɪmɪteɪt] / - подражать, копировать (что-л.)\ capacity [kə'pæsətɪ] - способность (что-л. делать)

indication [ˌɪndɪ'keɪʃ(ə)n] - знак, симптом, признак\ Involve – включать в себя, содержать

As a 4-year-old, Sam is busy pushing a block around the floor and making noises as he pretends the block is a car. The cognitive ability to pretend is a sign that Sam is going through the preoperational stage.

The preoperational stage (from about 2 to 7 years old) is the second of Piaget’s cognitive stages. In Piaget’s theory, the word “operations”* refers to logical mental activities. Thus, the “preoperational” stage is a prelogical stage.

During this stage, children learn to use symbols, such as words or mental images, to solve simple problems and to think or talk about things that are not present. The ability to use words, images, and symbols to represent the world is called symbolic thought. One indication of the increasing capacity for symbolic thought is the child’s impressive gains in language during this stage.

The child’s increasing capacity for symbolic thought is also apparent in his use of fantasy and imagination while playing. A discarded box (выброшенная коробка) becomes a spaceship, a house, or a fort, as children imaginatively take on the roles of different characters. In doing so, children imitate actions they have mentally symbolized from real situations.

At this stage, Sam is acquiring the cognitive ability to pretend things and to talk about or draw things that are not physically present. Thus, the preoperational stage is characterized by increasing use of symbols and prelogical thought processes.

*Если мышление ребенка на стадии сенсомоторного интеллекта предстает в виде системы обратимых действий, выполняемых материально и последовательно, то на стадии конкретных операций оно представляет систему операций, выполняемых в уме, но с обязательной опорой на внешние наглядные данные. Преоперационная (дооперационная) стадия (2 года — 7 лет) интеллектуального развития — стадия психического развития ребенка (в рамках теории Ж. Пиаже), при которой начинается перенос действий из материальной сферы во внутреннюю, психическую сферу, однако это интериоризированное действие весьма непластично.

immature [ˌɪmə'tjuə] - незрелый, недоразвившийся \ irreversibility – необратимость мышления

centration – центрация (Понятие, выражающее затруднения в переходе на позицию объективного наблюдателя. Предстает как свойство эгоцентризма в процессе мышления и как поглощенность перцептивно воспринимаемыми свойствами предметов.)

reverse [rɪ'vɜːs] – поворачивать, двигаться в противоположном направлении

mentally reversea sequence of events – представить развитие событий в обратном направлении

perceptual [pə'sepʧuəl] относящийся к восприятию; перцепционный

Still, the preoperational child’s understanding of symbols remains immature. A 2-year-old shown a picture of a flower, for example, may try to smell it.

The preoperational child’s thought is also characterized by irreversibility and centration. Irreversibility* means that the child cannot mentally reverse a sequence of events or logical operations back to the starting point. For example, the child doesn’t understand that adding “3 plus 1” and adding “1 plus 3” refer to the same logical operation. Centration refers to the tendency to focus, or center, on only one aspect of a situation, usually a perceptual aspect. In doing so, the child ignores other aspects of the situation.

*Необратимость мышления связана с неспособностью ребенка мысленно возвратиться к исходному пункту своих рассуждений.

remain - оставаться в каком-л. Состоянии \ face – сталкиваться, иметь дело с (чем-либо);

conservation – представление о сохранении (способность понимать, что некоторые трансформации не изменяют основные свойства объектов)

quantity ['kwɔntətɪ]- количество; \ equal ['iːkwəl]- равный, одинаковый;

inability [ˌɪnə'bɪlətɪ] - неспособность;\ simultaneously –одновременно

fail - потерпеть неудачу; \ same [seɪm] (the same) тот (же) самый; этот же; один и тот же

The classic demonstration of both irreversibility and centration involves a task devised by Piaget.

Conservation. As 4-year-old Sam watches you pour milk from a tall, thin glass into a short, wide glass, will he know that the amount of milk remains the same even though its shape changes? This is called the problem of conservation. Conservation refers to the fact that even though the shape of some object or substance is changed, the total amount remains the same. Here’s what happens when 4-year old Sam is faced with a conservation problem. In photo #1,4-year-old Sam watches as his mother fills two short, wide glasses with equal amounts of milk. In photo #2,Sam sees his mother pour the milk from one short, wide glass into a tall, thin glass. Mother asks, “Does one glass have more milk?” In photo #3,Sam points to the tall, thin glass as having more milk because the tall glass looks larger. He makes this mistake even though he just saw his mother pour the milk from a short, wide glass. Sam, like other children at the preoperational stage, will not be able to solve conservation problems until the next stage.

This classic demonstration illustrates the preoperational child’s inability to understand conservation. The principle of conservation holds that two equal physical quantities remain equal even if the appearance of one is changed, as long as nothing is added or subtracted. Because of centration*, the child cannot simultaneously consider the height and the width of the liquid in the container. Instead, the child focuses on only one aspect of the situation, the height of the liquid. And because of irreversibility**, the child cannot cognitively reverse the series of events, mentally returning the poured liquid to its original container. Thus, he fails to understand that the two amounts of liquid are still the same.

* Ребенок не способен понять, что два признака объекта (например, его форма и количество вещества в нем) не зависят друг от друга (форма стаканов не влияет на количество воды в них).

** Именно необратимость мышления не позволяет малышу проследить ход собственных рассуждений и, вернувшись к их началу, вообразить стаканы в исходном положении.

Lack - испытывать недостаток, нуждаться в (чём-л.); не иметь

consider [kən'sɪdə] рассматривать

viewpoint – точка зрения

appreciate [ə'priːʃɪeɪt] понимать, принимать во внимание

Egocentric thinking. Another problem that Sam has during the preoperational stage is egocentric thinking. By egocentrism, Piaget did not mean selfishness (эгоистичность). Rather, egocentric children lack the ability to consider events from another person’s point of view. Thus, the young child thinks that Grandma would like a Spiderman video for her upcoming birthday because that’s what he wants.

Egocentric thinking refers to seeing and thinking of the world only from your own viewpoint and having difficulty appreciating someone else’s viewpoint.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the chief developments in the preoperational stage?

2. What limitations does the thinking of a preoperational child have?

3. What is irreversibility?

4. What is centration?

5. What is conservation?

EX.18 In each of these groups two words are synonyms. Decide which of the three words (or word combinations) in each group is the odd one out.

1. fail, face, confront

2. pretend, imagine, increase

3. increase, grow, indicate

4. apparent, imaginative, notable

5. imaginative, capable, creative

6. capacity, limitation, ability

7. gain, quantity, increase

8. acquire, involve, include

9. gain, acquire, fail

10. fail, imitate, be unsuccessful

EX.19 Fill in the gaps with appropriate words.

Inability\ awareness\ appearance \ limitations\ conservation\ irreversibility

Conservation is Piaget’s term for the __________that physical quantities remain constant in spite of changes in their shape or ____________. Why are preoperational children unable to solve ____________problems? According to Piaget, their ___________to understand conservation is caused by some __________ of preoperational thinking. These limitations include centration, ____________, and egocentrism.

EX.20 Fill in the gaps with appropriate words.

Ability\ tendency\ perspective \inability

Centration is the ____________ to focus on just one feature of a problem, neglecting other important aspects. When working on the conservation problem with water, preoperational children tend to concentrate on the height of the water while ignoring the width. They have difficulty focusing on several aspects of a problem at once.

Irreversibility is the ___________ to imagine reversing an action. Preoperational children can’t mentally “undo” (undo= возвращать в прежнее положение) something. For instance, in grappling with the conservation of water, they don’t think about what would happen if the water were poured back from the tall beaker into the original beaker.

Egocentrism in thinking is characterized by a limited ___________ to share another person’s viewpoint.

Indeed, Piaget felt that preoperational children fail to appreciate that there are points of view other than their own. For instance, if you ask a preoperational girl whether her sister has a sister, she’ll probably say no if they are the only two girls in the family. She’s unable to view sisterhood from her sister’s _______________.

EX 21. Put the verb into the correct form.

1. Cognition refers to the mental processes which (involve) in acquiring knowledge.

2. Cognitive theorists argue that psychology must (study) internal mental events to fully understand behavior.

3. Piaget (interest) in the reasoning underlying the children’s wrong answers.

4. Many of his ideas (base) on insights obtained from careful observations of his own three children during their infancy.

5. Piaget proposed that youngsters go through four major stages of cognitive development, which (characterize) by fundamentally different thought processes.

6. Noting that children actively explore the world around them, Piaget asserted that interaction with the environment and maturation gradually (change) the way children think.

7. Assimilation (involve) interpreting new experiences in terms of existing mental structures without

changing them.

8. In contrast, accommodation involves changing existing mental structures to (explain) new experiences.

9. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development identifies four stages which (mark) by fundamentally different modes of thinking through which youngsters evolve. (mark=характеризовать).

10. The investigation of cognitive development (dominate) in most of the second half of the 20th century by the theory of Jean Piaget (dominate= оказывать преобладающее влияние)

EX.22

A.

The “Swiss mountain scene” test of egocentrism The three model mountains are of different colours. The child walks round and explores the model and then sits on one side while a doll is placed at some different location. The child is shown ten pictures of different views of the model and asked to choose the one that represents how the doll sees it. Four-year olds were completely unaware of perspectives different from their own and always choose a picture which matched their view of the model.

B.

Centration

This involves focusing on only a single perceptual quality at a time. A child asked to divide apples into those that are “big and red” and those that are “small and green” will either put all the red (or green) apples together irrespective of their size, or all the big (or small) apples together irrespective of their colour. Untill the child can decentre, it will be unable to classify things logically or systematically. By age of five, however, most children can select a number of things and say what they have in common. Centration is also associated with the inability to conserve.

C.

Conservation

The notion of conservation is that there's ways to transform things such that some aspects of them change but others remain the same. So, for instance, if you take a glass of water and you pour it into another glass that's shallow or tall, it won't change the amount of water you have. If you take a bunch of pennies (ряд монет) and you spread them out (увеличить расстояние между монетами), you don't get more pennies. But kids, according to Piaget, don't know that and this is one of the real cool demonstrations.

D.

False belief – ошибочное суждение

enact [ɪ'nækt ]ставить на сцене; \ability – способность

The false belief task

Wimmer and Perner (1983) study children's ability to understand other people’s perspective. A story is enacted with puppets in front of the child in which a story figure (Maxi) puts a piece of chocolate in location A, then leaves. In his absence, a second figure (Mom) transfers the chocolate from location A to location B and subsequently leaves. Maxi returns. The child is asked where Maxi will look for the chocolate. Almost all children younger than 3 years of age answer that Maxi will look in location B (i.e., where the chocolate actually is). Around the age of 3.5 to 4 years, children begin to base their action prediction on the story figure's false belief.

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