PLEASE ONLY USE THE VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW TO ANSWER BOTH QUESTIONS. ONLY ANSWER a and B.

In this video the narrator describes the beliefs and cognitive abilities of children who are in the preoperational stage of development. He highlights the concepts of egocentrism and conservation, both key aspects of this stage of development. Think about your own experience with young children in this stage, and their response to experiences like those described in the video.

a) List and describe the basic features of Piagets preoperational stage explained in the video.

b) Explain what the law of conservation is, and why young children have difficulty with it. Why do you think conservation is such a hard concept for young minds to grasp?

Video Transcript:

>> According to John Piaget children enter the preoperational stage of cognitive development during the pre-school years. Their thinking changes dramatically and that they now have the capacity to think symbolically using words or objects to represent something else.

>> Sarah and Jill dress up and have a tea party. Later, they feed their doll. Four year old Jared pretends he is a spy kid and chooses an appropriate costume.

>> What are you going to be?

>> A spy kid.

>> Maybe you should have dinner with them.

>> Todd and Jared show further increases in mental representation. They are engaged in what Piaget called symbolic play-- clearly imagining that the blocks they are playing with are something else; in this case a building.

[ Background talking ]

>> Despite these increases in cognitive skills the thought processes of preoperational children result in characteristic errors in reasoning. One of the most easily observed deficiencies is the tendency to view the world only from one's own perspective, a phenomenon that Piaget termed egocentrism. Because of egocentric thinking preoperational children hide by covering their eyes or only parts of their bodies; believing that if they can't see the seeker then they themselves can't be seen.

[ Background talking ]

>> Other preoperational reasoning errors result from thinking that is intuitive rather than logical. For example, preschool children are incapable of conservation. They do not understand that certain properties of objects such as volume or mass do not change just because the superficial appearance of the object changes. When given two of Piaget's famous conservation tasks, Olivia, Deborah, Jacob, Christopher and Jack illustrate this lack of understanding.

>> Is there the same amount in each one of those glasses? Okay I'm going to take this one and pour it right here. Is there the same amount in each glass now?

>> No.

>> Which one has more?

>> So this one has...

>> More than this one. I'd say if that one is bigger and that one is smaller, that one has the most.

>> Does that look like the same amount of play doe each one's the same one? Okay I'm going to go like this and wash it down like that. Now does that look like it's the same amount still? Which one's more?

>> That one.

>> This one.

>> This one.

>> Preoperational children are not only tied to their perceptions they are also unable to de-center their thinking or think about more than one aspect of a problem at a time. They're thinking also shows what Piaget called irreversibility. They are unable to reverse or mentally undue an action. The following responses to the question, why do they no longer have the same amount illustrate these limitations in preoperational thinking. Deborah, age 3.

>> Deborah: Because it's tall.

>> Christopher, age 4 and one half.

>> Christopher: Cause this one's higher than this one.

>> Jack, age 5.

>> Jack: Because this one's low and this one's tall.

>> Olivia, age 3.

>> Olivia: That one and that one.

>> Deborah, age 3.

>> Deborah: That one it's gush.

>> Jacob, age 4.

>> Jacob: Because you smush that one down and not that one. That one has the most.

>> As children move into the concrete operational stage of middle childhood, they are no longer fooled by appearances.