The form of intellectual development in children age 4 through 9

Journal/Book: Intelligence. 1996; 22: 355 Chestnut St, Norwood, NJ 07648. Ablex Publ Corp. 191-226.

Abstract: The development of intelligence as one may understand it through situations portrayed by Piaget has never yet entailed sufficient important longitudinal investigations, as was formerly the case with intelligence measured through tests. Yet such an approach seems to be highly necessary and relevant for questioning the coherence of the theory. The work presented here analyzes the data of a study on operative thought with children aged 4 to 9. The same 104 children were tested five times with the same 25 Piagetian tasks, giving a total of 13,000 data points (104 children x 25 tasks x 5 occasions). First studied is the development profile and the intra- and interindividual variabilities, the intraindividual changes, regressions, coherence of stages, and the decalages. LISREL software is used in order to estimate several different developmental models. Classical methods of factorial analysis enable to comparison of the organization of the data with those that had previously been accounted for in scientific literature. Two major conclusions are drawn. On the one hand, there are manifest indicators of synergy in the development of the various behaviors, such indicators being liable to be compared to those accounted by the g factor in the traditional psychometrical approach, and, further, some validity and coherence of the concept of stage can be observed. On the other hand, it has not been possible to validate specific problems of behavior organization liable to be inferred through theory, namely in the fields of both number and space representation genesis.

Note: Article J Bradmetz, Univ Besancon, Psychol Lab, 30 Rue Megevand, F-25000 Besancon, France

Keyword(s): TASKS

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