The Grasp of Consciousness (Psychology Revivals)

Action and Concept in the Young Child

Jean Piaget

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317524823
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Originally published in English in 1976, the book draws on and extends our knowledge of the process of learning. The subject of the study is the general stage in a child's development that comes between his successful performance of an activity without knowing how he did it – that is, what he had to do in order to succeed – and the times when he becomes aware of what went into that action. The book reports the results of experiments conducted at the Centre of Genetic Epistemology. Children, ranging in age between four and adolescence, were asked to perform such tasks as walking on all fours, playing tiddlywinks, building a ramp for a toy car. They were then asked to explain how they had performed the task, and in some cases, to instruct the interviewer. Their answers show a number of surprising inaccuracies in the child's ability to grasp the nature of what he has done.

Taking a broad view of his results, Piaget shows that they reveal several stages in the gradual development of the child's conceptualization of his actions. In analysing each stage, Piaget argues that the child's concept of his own action cannot be considered a simple matter of 'enlightenment', but must actively be reconstructed from his experience. This view has always been at the core of Piaget's work, and a new area of the child's mental world is here given definitive treatment.

1 Walking on All Fours

In the other studies described in this book, the subject carries out actions on certain objects, with his cognizance of these actions depending on his observation of their effects on the objects, as well as of the results and of his own movements. It is therefore useful to begin by analyzing a situation in which the role of the objects is reduced to a minimum, but where the action nevertheless is sufficiently complex for the subject to have trouble grasping it completely, although not so complex that his cognizance is delayed too long. Asking subjects to walk on all fours provides an excellent situation, since most of us could do this before we could walk and because the only material required is a fixed floor, serving simply as a support and not as an instrument or goal. Furthermore, this allows a particularly useful opportunity to check one of our general hypotheses, namely that cognizance depends on active adjustments involving choices of a more or less deliberate nature rather than on automatic sensorimotor regulations. Walking on all fours, of course, because of its familiarity (unless deliberately obstructed), involves only regulations of this second sensorimotor type and at least one part of the hypothesis would be invalidated if it were accomplished at every age with full cognizance.

The subject is asked to walk (on all fours) about 10 meters, then to explain verbally how he did it. After this, he is asked to use a teddy bear (with jointed limbs) to execute the movements he describes. If necessary, the interviewer gets on the floor and asks the child to tell him which limb to move first, and so forth. Subsequently, the child is asked once more to walk on all fours, this time paying attention to what he is doing, and to give a running commentary. If the explanation is incorrect, he is asked to perform in the way he has just described to see whether it is right. Finally, if he feels another task is necessary, the interviewer suggests that the child walk on all fours quickly across the room and stop immediately when so instructed—at which point he is asked to describe how he started his last movement.

Level IA

At this level, four-year-olds (and sometimes slow developers up to the age of seven) describe their actions as follows (Z or its reverse

pattern): one hand, then the other one, then one foot, then the other one (or the feet first). This differs both from the N or its reverse

pattern (right or left hand, then the foot of the same side, then the other hand and the second foot) and from the X pattern (left or right hand, then opposite foot, then other hand and remaining foot).

Examples

SYL (4,4) walks a few meters (pattern X). How are you doing it? I’m moving my hands, arms, feet, and legs, and my head. But what first? I’m moving everything at the same time. (then with the bear) First that one (left foot), that one (right foot), that one (left hand), and that one (right hand). Now walk on all fours again yourself and really look at what you’re doing. (Gives same description.) Someone else told me that it was like that (description of X). Is that right? No, first that one and that one … (Z). Show me how I’ve got to do it (on the floor). This hand, then that one, then this foot, then that one (Z).

PAU (4,7) walks according to pattern X. How do you do it? You put both legs and then both hands. Show me on the bear. (Right foot, then left, right hand, then left.) Is that how you go on all fours? Both feet and then your left hand and right hand. How? Both feet at the same time, then one hand, then the other one. Show me what I’ve got to do (on the floor). (One foot after the other, then one hand after the other.) Get on the floor and do it the way you’ve just told me. (He puts both hands forward at the same time and gets stuck.) Is that how you told me? Yes. Do it again and tell me what you’ve done. (Again Z.)

NAD (4,9) has the same reactions as the other two: both hands, then both feet, each time one after the other, and so on. When she is asked to walk on all fours in this way, she tries, then hesitates and reverts to the X pattern. What did you move first? (She still gives the same description.)

MIC (4,6): After the same reactions as the others (first my hands, first one and then the other. After that my legs, one and then the other), except, surprisingly enough, for making the bear walk in the X pattern, MIC gets down on the floor again and walks, trying to give a running commentary: I take this hand, then that one, then one foot and one foot (his actions constantly bely his words). When the interviewer suggests the X pattern, he says, No, it’s animals that do it like that (and he shows it again with the bear). Do it again yourself. (He does it according to X and again describes it as Z.)

The Z solution clearly indicates these subjects’ complete lack of awareness of how they actually walk on all fours, since none of them actually do it this way. (Although most subjects walk according to pattern X, pattern N is sometimes encountered.) Why then does pattern Z immediately come to their minds? This is surely because, if the subjects are asked to give an order of succession about which they themselves have no clue (I’m moving everything at the same time, says SYL), they are likely to describe the simplest order, that is, first hands, then feet (or the other way around), but always both hands before both feet (or vice versa) starting each movement with the same-side foot or hand (otherwise the pattern would be ] or [ and not Z). Of the 34 four- to eight-year-olds with this type of reaction, 30 Z opposed to only 4 ] were encountered, which is a fairly clear indication that these children are describing the simplest construction and are not attempting to determine the actual order of their movements.

MIC’s manipulation of the teddy bear is, however, worthy of comment, since unlike the other subjects, he makes the bear move according to pattern X. We might have considered this pure chance, since immediately afterward he tells the interviewer to walk on all fours according to pattern Z, which is also the pattern that emerges from his (incorrect) running commentary on his own renewed slow motion walk; but there is his immediate response, at the end of the questioning, to the suggestion of the X pattern. Unlike SYL, he does not say it is wrong, but it’s animals that do it like that. In other words, he seems to conserve as a memory image the way dogs, cats, or horses move, but this does not help him at all to become actively aware of his own movements; it seems easier to observe others than himself. To sum up, at this level the Z pattern seems to be chosen only because it is the simplest. As will be seen later, subjects at more advanced levels often start off describing the Z pattern, but progress to N or even X.

Level IB

The five- and six-year-old subjects give an N-type description: hand, then foot (or the other way round) of the same side, then the two successively of the other side. This solution, not encountered with four-year-olds, is found with about one-third of the seven- to ten-year-olds and even with adults (who, however, walked according to pattern X).¹

Examples

COL (5,6) starts off by describing the Z pattern, which he also uses when telling the interviewer how to walk on all fours. On the other hand, when he himself is asked to crawl again, this time slowly, and take note of what he is doing, he says, Right hand, then right foot, left hand, and left foot—pattern N, even though he walked according to pattern X. Walk on all fours again, slowly. First that one (right foot), then right hand, then left foot and left hand (inverted N pattern). Now do it and tell me what you’re doing as you go along. (He walks according to X, while describing the inverted N pattern, then adapts his walking to match the latter.) Once more. (This time he walks the whole time according to X.) My right foot, my right hand, my left foot, and my left hand.

ART (6,2) walks according to pattern X. I lift my legs and my hands. How? (She starts off again according to X.) That one (right foot) and that one (left foot). And afterward? Right hand and left hand (thus pattern Z). Same thing for the bear and for the instructions to the interviewer. However, when she is asked to walk slowly, noting carefully what she is doing, she says, despite her X pattern, Right foot, right hand, left foot, left hand (thus inverted N). When she does it quickly, she reverts to describing the Z pattern. And now walk on all fours again slowly and tell me at the same time what you are doing. Right hand, left hand, left foot, right hand, left hand, left foot, right hand, right foot … and so forth. In fact, having started off according to X, she then adapts her movements to match what she is saying and walks according to N.

LAI (6,11) walks according to pattern X, then, without saying a word, points to his right foot, right hand, left foot, and left hand (inverted N). He starts off by making the teddy bear move according to pattern Z, then changes this to N. However, he tells the interviewer to walk according to X, then, back on all fours himself, he walks slowly, with his commentary initially correctly describing pattern X, then reverting to N without noticing that his words no longer match his movements. Finally, the bear is again made to move according to N.

This N pattern, not encountered with four-year-olds but clearly predominant with fives and sixes, is also favored by a third of the seven- to ten-year-old subjects and, as mentioned above, by some adults. Unlike the Z pattern, it is a perfectly feasible way of walking on all fours, although the X pattern is far more common. What is important here is that most subjects describe their movements as if they formed an N pattern, whereas in reality they move in an X pattern (COL, ART, and LAI), and so are not fully conscious of their own movements. Sometimes it does happen (but this is in no way equivalent) that such a subject may try to match his movements to his commentary and move according to N (for example, ART, who at the end of the session stops walking according to X and begins moving according to N).

In this example there is, therefore, no cognizance conceptualized from a previous action, but there is influence of the conceptualization on the subsequent action. This difference is most significant. It indicates that when a child describes his movements only after he has stopped walking on all fours, his actions are directed by simple automatic sensorimotor regulations, which are not sufficient to make him actively conscious of his every movement. Still, when asked for a running commentary, he may even start to hesitate before putting a foot or hand forward, forced to choose between several possibilities: such a choice is a basic characteristic of an active regulation, which as a rule leads to full consciousness of the actions in question. In this particular case, it is true, there is no actively regulated action followed by a conceptualized and adequate cognizance, but instead, first a conceptualization that does not match the action, then an active adjustment resulting in the action matching the conceptualization and thereby becoming conscious. However, even if the active adjustment here stems from an incorrect conceptualization of the subject’s action, these examples do demonstrate the need for a distinction—the value of which will become increasingly clear—between the two types of regulations, that is, between those that are automatic and those that are active.

Stage II

Half the subjects at level IIA (seven to eight years) systematically give what may now be simply termed the X solution, which previously was given only by LAI and even then not at all systematically. Two-thirds of the level IIB subjects (nine-and ten-year-olds) give this X solution.

Examples (Level IIA)

MAR (7,6) starts off walking on all fours according to X, but her description is of the Z pattern: To walk like a little cat, I put my right hand, then my left hand, then my right foot and afterward the other one … always like that. Try again. Did you notice what you were doing? My right hand (pause) after it’s the left hand, right foot, left foot (still Z pattern). Very good. Try once more and see what you are doing. (She walks again, this time slowly.) Right hand and after (hesitation) I put my left foot and then left hand and afterward my right foot (thus now X pattern). Show me with this teddy bear. (X solution.) And now have another try yourself. (She again describes the X pattern.)

JEN (8,11) first of all describes her movements according to pattern Z, then those of the teddy bear according to N, then again her own movements according to Z, and then according to N. However, when she is suddenly told to stop: Now, go on. Right hand and left knee, then left hand and right knee (pattern X). Now do it very quickly. My right hand and left knee, then left hand and right knee. Do you remember what you said before? (She repeats the Z description.) Was it right? No, it was wrong. Show me on the bear. (X solution.) Do you do the same? Yes, I think so.

Examples (Level IIB)

RAU (9,8): Can you walk on all fours? (pattern X). How do you do it? I put my knees and hands on the floor. I go forward with my right hand and with my left knee as well, then I put my left hand forward, I put my right knee (so, immediately, an X solution). Show me on the teddy bear. (X solution.) Now, I’m going to walk on all fours; you tell me what to do. Put your right hand forward, left leg forward, left hand forward, right knee forward.

JAC (10,6) crawls according to pattern X: Tell me what you did. I knelt down, put both hands on the floor. I put my right hand forward, then left knee; my left hand, then right knee. (Straightaway, an X solution.) And on the teddy bear? (Again, the X solution.)

JUL (10,3), by contrast, starts off by describing the Z pattern, then makes the bear move according to N. Is that how you said just now? Not quite, I said that hands and feet had to be together. Try doing it again. (N description followed by N pattern actions.) Now, do it very quickly. (Moves according to X.) How did you do it? Left leg with right hand and left hand with right foot (in other words, X pattern).

There is thus at this second level a clear grasp, or cognizance, of the individual movements involved in wa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• 1 Walking on All Fours
• 2 The Path of an Object Launched by a Sling
• 3 The Ping-pong Ball (or the Hoop)
• 4 The Slope
• 5 Building a Road up a Hill
• 6 Tiddlywinks
• 7 The Impact of One Ball on Another
• 8 Pushing Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Objects
• 9 Towing a Small Rectangular Box
• 10 The Catapult
• 11 The Flying Balloon
• 12 The Construction of Tracks by Means of Connecting Rails
• 13 Rings and String
• 14 The Hanoi Tower
• 15 Seriation
• 16 Conclusions
• Index