The Child's Conception of Physical Causality

Jean Piaget

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138534667
• eBook ISBN: 9781351305068
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Our encounters with the physical world are filled with miraculous puzzles-wind appears from somewhere, heavy objects (like oil tankers) float on oceans, yet smaller objects go to the bottom of our water-filled buckets. As adults, instead of confronting a whole world, we are reduced to driving from one parking garage to another. The Child's Conception of Physical Causality, part of the very beginning of the ground-breaking work of the Swiss naturalist Jean Piaget, is filled with creative experimental ideas for probing the most sophisticated ways of thinking in children.

The strength of Piaget's research is evident in this collection of empirical data, systematically organized by tasks that illuminate how things work. Piaget's data are remarkably rich. In his new introduction, Jaan Valsiner observes that Piaget had no grand theoretical aims, yet the book's simple power cannot be ignored. Piaget's great contribution to developmental psychology was his "clinical method"-a tactic that integrated relevant aspects of naturalistic experiment, interview, and observation. Through this systematic inquiry, we gain insight into children's thinking.

Reading Piaget will encourage the contemporary reader to think about the unity of psychological phenomena and their theoretical underpinnings. His wealth of creative experimental ideas probes into the most sophisticated ways of thinking in children. Technologies change, yet the creative curiosity of children remains basically unhindered by the consumer society. Piaget's data preserve the reality of the original phenomena. As such, this work will provide a wealth of information for developmental psychologists and those involved in the field of experimental science.

Section I
Explanation of Movement

In an earlier volume¹ we have tried to establish what are the outstanding features of the child’s conception of the world. Intellectualism, animism, and artificialism were what we found to be its prevailing notes. We shall now proceed to make a more detailed analysis, and to see whether, connected with mental realism, with animism, and with artificialism, there is not a corresponding conception of material force and a system of physics peculiar to the child.

Three methods present themselves for this purpose; they are of unequal value, but must be used in conjunction if nothing of interest is to be allowed to escape. The first is the purely verbal method, and consists in asking the children whether bodies (or a series of bodies named in a given order) have weight, and if so, why. In this way we obtain the definition of the verbal idea of material force. The second method is half verbal, half practical: a certain number of movements (those of clouds, of rivers, of the parts of a machine, etc.) are enumerated to the child who is then questioned as to why and how these movements are performed. This method gives a more direct view of child dynamics, but one that is still tainted with verbalism, since no manipulation is possible. Finally comes the third method which is, as far as possible, direct: little experiments in physics are carried out before the child, and he is questioned as to “how” each event takes place. This gives first-hand information about the mental orientation of children.

In the present section these three methods will be used in turn. Our procedure may seem unusual, but it is the fruit of earlier experimentation rather than of any preconceived ideas. We shall begin with the study of children’s ideas about air, its movement and its origin. As will appear later, a large number of natural movements, such as those of the heavenly bodies, of rivers, of clouds, etc., are believed by the child to be produced by wind. Only, this statement is incomprehensible—we failed ourselves to understand it for many years—so long as no exact information has been collected about the explanations which children give of the wind itself; for, strange to say, the wind is often believed to be produced by the actual clouds or waves that are in movement. One or more vicious circles would therefore seem to exist within the mind of the child, and we must beware of letting adult logic mislead us as to their nature. Above all, care must be taken to avoid distortion of meaning or, as the physicists call it, “systematic error”, by which they mean mistakes that are the outcome of the very way in which the experiments are set, for these mistakes vitiate every result, and always in the same sense. It is in order to steer clear of this danger that we have begun our enquiry with an analysis of children’s ideas about air. Once this analysis has been completed, we shall be able to examine the explanations given by the child concerning natural movements, and then pass on to a description of the idea of physical force.

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¹ J. Piaget, The Child’s Conception of the World (this Library), 1928.

Chapter I

Experiments Concerning The Nature of Air

The problem of air is highly interesting to children and a large number of spontaneous questions bear witness to their natural curiosity about wind and air in general. Sully¹ mentions children, some of whom believed that wind was caused by a large fan waved by an unseen being, and others that it was produced by the movement of trees. Stanley Hall² quotes the following questions of a boy of six: “What makes the wind blow? Is someone pushing it? I thought it would have to stop when it went against a house or a big tree. Does it know that it is making our pages blow over?” Miss Morse Nice³ took down these questions of a child of four: “What is air? How do people make air? What makes air?” These questions show that there exists in very young children a spontaneous interest in air and wind, together with a spontaneous tendency to think of wind as both alive and produced by human beings (animism and artificialism combined).

How can one get at children’s real ideas about these matters? The enquiry has been carried out here in a very concrete and direct manner, and is one in which no effort must be spared in the attempt to avoid verbalism and to capture the child’s immediate reactions. This, after much tentative groping, is the method we adopted. First experiment: we show the child the lid of a box attached to a piece of string. We then put a penny in the lid, swing the string round on a vertical plane, and ask the child why the penny does not fall out of the box. This preliminary experiment does not seem to have any connection with air. But, as will be seen later, it is by referring to the movement of the air that (at least in the succeeding stage) the child explains why the penny does not drop. Second experiment: we clasp our two hands together, and, by repeated pressure of the palms, produce a small current of air which the child generally becomes aware of with extreme surprise. We then ask the child where this air comes from, etc. Third experiment: we give the child an india-rubber ball punctured at a point which is clearly visible. We deflate the ball, taking care to direct the jet of air against the child’s hand or cheek. The ball is thus completely deflated, and the child is made to observe that it is flat and contains no more air. We then let it fill itself with air and begin the experiment over again. We ask the child where the air comes from that is in the ball, where the air comes from that has gone into the ball, and so on. Later on, the same game is played with a small tube, or with a bicycle pump, etc. Fourth experiment: the lid is again swung round, but without the penny, and horizontally. The child is asked where the air comes from which this movement produces. A fan may also be used, but this is not necessary. Fifth experiment: the child is told to blow on his hand and is asked where this air comes from, where the air comes from that is in his mouth, etc. This leads to a series of questions on breathing. Finally, the sixth point which is purely verbal: the child is asked where the wind comes from, how it began, etc. It is naturally a good thing to add to these six questions other complementary enquiries as to the consciousness or life of the air.¹

The order of succession given to these six groups of questions is intended to avoid as far as possible any suggestion “by perseveration”. The questions about the wind should only come at the end, otherwise the child will bring in the wind at every point. Finally, it goes without saying that as an indispensable precaution the room in which the experiments are carried out should be entirely shut in, even in summer. The windows should even be closed before the child arrives on the scene, otherwise he will not fail to say (at least if he is under 7-8) that the air of the hands or of the ball, etc., has just come in through the window, the room being ordinarily thought of as empty of air.

In the following exposition we shall pay no attention to the order in which the experiments have been carried out. The questions about wind and breathing, moreover, will be kept for the next chapter.

1. Pressure of the hands.

The answers given by the children to the questions we asked in the second of our experiments, that of the pressure of hands, may roughly be divided into four stages. During the first stage, which extends on the average up to the age of six (average age of this stage: 5 years and 4 months), the child admits that the air issuing from the hands is due to the actual pressure, the room being considered as empty of air; but in addition, and this is what characterises this particular stage, the hands, in producing air, attract, so to speak, a supplementary quantity of air which comes in from outside (air passing through the closed windows). Thus what characterises this first stage is an immediate participation between the air produced by the hands and a reservoir of wind out of doors. During a second stage, in which the average age is 7, the air is conceived as being produced by the pressure of the hands (the room being thought of as empty) but this pressure causes air to come out of the skin and the interior of the body. During a third stage (average age 8), the air is simply produced by the hands without any additional factor. Finally, when at about the age of 9 the fourth stage is reached, the mechanism is understood: the room is full of air and the hands simply collect and then send out again the air that surrounds them.

Here are some examples from the first stage, which is very interesting from the point of view of the child’s conception of physical causality: the air from outside comes in obedience, as it were, to a call, and comes through the closed window.

Bat (4) tells us that the sound he hears is due to the air: “Where does it come from? . . .”¹ “Where does the air come from?—Through the window.—Is it open?—No, shut.—And yet the air could get through?—Yes.—Where?—... Look at my hands [they are open before him]. Is there any air in them?—No.—And now [pressing them one against the other]?—Yes.—Where does it come from?—From the window.—Is there any in the room? —No.”

Zel (41): “Look, do you hear? What is it?—Wind.—Where does it come from?—From the window.—Is there any wind in my hands?—No.—And in the room?—No.—And now [hand pressing]?—Yes.—Where does it come from?—From the hands.—And where does the wind in the hands come from?—From the window.—And the wind in the window?—From the sky.—How did it get in?—By the window, and then it went into the hands.—When did it come?—When you did that [when the hands are pressed together].—How did it come?—I don’t know.—How?—In between the window. [The window is, of course, closed. Zel is supposing that the wind comes through the chink between the two sides of the French- window.] “

Taq (7 ; 4. G.)²: “What am I doing? -—You are shutting your fingers and then clapping.” “It is blowing.—What is it?—Like the wind.—Where does it come from?—From your hands.—What is it that blows?—Wind.—What is it called? Air?—Yes.” “ Where does it come from?—It’s the wind that comes from your hands.—And where does the wind in my hands come from? —From outside. (Taq points to the closed window.)—The air comes from outside, does it? How?—Through the window.—Is it open?—No. Through your open hand.—[The experiment is repeated.] Is the wind coming now?—No . . . yes.—How does it get in?—It comes into the room, then it goes into your hand.—Is the window open?—It was open just a minute ago.—And the wind came in?—No. It is outside.—Is there any wind in here?—No.” “ Is there any air on this table?—No.—Here [pointing up] 7—No.—Here?—No.—On the floor 7—No.” “How does the wind manage to get in when I do this with my hands?—. . .—Could a butterfly get in?—No.—And could the wind?—Yes.—What way 7—By the window.” “Does the air get in through the window even when it is shut 7—Yes.”

Mont (7; 2) The experiment is done and Mont exclaims: “There is air l—Where does it come from?—From outside. [He points to the street].—Is there any outside?—Yes.—And in the room?—No.—Here [in the hands]?—Yes.—How is that? Where does it come from? —From outside.—. . .—What makes the air?—The hand makes the air.—How?—. . We then try to help Mont by showing him the displacement of air due to the rotation of the box. “Where does this air come from? —From inside there.—And the air inside there?—From outside.” “ Where does it come from?—From inside there.—How is that?—When you turn it round, it makes air.—Why?—Because it is cold [the rotating lid does produce a cold current].—Where does this air come from? —From inside there.—Then it doesn’t come from outside? Or does it come from outside?—From outside.—Show me where outside is [he points towards the street].—[We return to the experiment of the hands.] Where does this air come from?—From outside.” The conversation is continued, but the answer is always the same. The case, then, is quite clear. The rotation of the box and the pressing together of the hands produce air which immediately attracts the air from outside.

Re (8): “What’s happening?—It’s blowing.—Why?—Because you're clapping your hands.—What is blowing?—The air.—Where does it come from?—From outside.—Where from?—From the street.—I...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction to the Transaction Edition
• Section I Explanation of Movement
• Section II Prediction and Explanation
• Section III Explanation of Machines
• Section IV The Child’s Conception of Reality and Causality