NAME – SALONI JAIN

CLASS- 1MPCLB
REG. NO. – 22223099
TOPIC- DESIGNING OF COGNITIVE
TASKS
 PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that as
children grows, their intelligence changes. A child’s cognitive
growth happens when the child focuses on constructing the
mental model of the world. Cognitive development occurs
through the interactions with the environment and child’s
innate capacities, passing through different stages of
development. Piaget identified 4 stages of cognitive
development -:
1. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE (BIRTH TO 2 YEARS) – During this
period, infants associate their sensory information and
motor reflexes to act on their environment. During the
first two years, infants develop from having a very limited
information to transforming into strong problem solvers.
There are two important aspects of this stage-:
 Deferred Imitation- The ability to reproduce an
activity that you saw in the past.
 Object permanence- The realization that objects
continue to exists even when they are not visible
through the other senses.
2. PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGE (2-7 YEARS) - It is marked by
the presence of symbolic functioning which is the ability to
make one thing like an object represent something else.
 They can use words to represent experiences and
language is the most obvious form of symbolism that they
display. Some concepts here are-
 Animism- The ability to attribute lifelike qualities to
inanimate objects.
 Egocentrism- A tendency to view the world from
only one’s own perspective and to ignore others
point of view.
 Appearance /Reality distinction- Ability to keep true
properties of object in mind despite seeing the
versions of it.
3. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE (7 -11 YEARS) – Children
rapidly acquire cognitive operations and apply these new
skills and learnings to the events that they experience.
Some concepts here are-:
 Conservation- The recognition that properties of an
object do not change even if their appearance is
altered.
 De-centration- The ability of a person to consider
multiple aspects of a person.
 Reversibility – The ability to reverse an action by
mentally undoing it.
 Mental seriation – A cognitive operation that allows
one to mentally order a stimuli.
4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE (11-12 YEARS AND
BEYOND) – Here the individual begins to think more
rationally and effectively about the abstract concepts and
ideas. They perform their mental actions in a systematic
manner. They are involved in hypothetical deductive
reasoning which means an ability to think hypothetically.

DESIGNING COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENTAL TASK

NAME OF THE TASK – First cognitive task I chose for a 7

year old child was named as THE CLAY TASK. It assessed
the child’s ability to distinguish or understand the fact that
properties of an object do not change even if its looks are
altered. Second task I chose for a 7 year old was named as
THE SHAPE SERIES TASK. This task assessed the child’s
ability to put items or objects in a sequential order.

STAGES TO WHICH FALLS UNDER – The clay task assess

the child’s ability to distinguish the fact that properties of
an object do not change even if its looks are altered. The
shape series task assess the ability to put items in a
sequential order. Conservation and seriation lies under
concrete operational stage.
ELEMENTS OF COGNITION BEING ASSESSED – Piaget’s
ideas have influenced psychology, focusing on the concept
of conservation which falls under concrete operational
stage. Conservation is the child’s ability to focus on the
fact that properties of an object do not change even if its
looks are altered. The cognitive element being assessed
here is thinking. Thinking is the process of giving out
reasons about something. Conservation involves thinking
aspect because it judges the child’s ability to dual encoding
or the ability to process two things at the same time.
Another cognitive element present is conceptualization.
Conservation involves conceptualization as it focuses to
understand that whether the child got the idea or concept
of conservation. William Henry (1936) did a research study
on children and found out that the ability to conserve
increases with age and it dominates the child’s thinking
ability.
Another concept which I took was seriation. Seriation is
the child’s ability to put items in a sequential order. The
cognitive element being assessed here is thinking,
problem solving, and conceptualization. Problem solving
is the ability to look out for solutions and solve problems
in a systematic manner. Conceptualization is the ability to
understand concepts and facts and to apply it in different
situations. David Elkind (2012) researched on seriation and
found out that seriation tasks were designed to focus on
conceptualizing ability that focuses on the formulation of
any particular conception and accounts for similarity in
diverse areas. Linda S. Siegel (1972) also did a research
study on seriation and found out that seriation tasks
involves the child’s ability to put items in an order and also
focused that child’s failure in this tasks happens due to the
language difficulty.

RATIONALE FOR MAKING IT COGNITIVE IN NATURE-

Cognitive skills play a very important role in an individual’s
life and development. It includes some of the basic core
functions of brain such as reading, writing, learning,
memory, thinking, reasoning, attention etc. All this affects
the quality of our learning and performance. Cognitive
assessments are useful to detect the cognitive
impairments like a deficiency in knowledge, judgement
etc. The focus on the cognition skills are important as it
helps to test the child’s major and mild cognitive
impairment, evaluate their brain injuries and any kind of
intellectual dysfunctioning. Cognitive tasks helps in
focusing on the child’s ability to understand and
comprehend things. Each cognitive tasks is carefully
constructed to detect and focus on neuropsychological
 domains such as memory, reasoning, decision making,
attention and perception. These tasks are also important
so that personality disorders can also be treated within the
right time as deficiency in thinking plays a major role in
these disorders. A child’s intellectual impairment can also
be prevented with time if these cognitive tests are taken
time to time.

DESCRIPTION OF THE TASK DONE- The first task that I

conducted was the clay task. This task was designed to
evaluate the concept of conservation. In this task, a clay
was taken and it was divided into two parts. Both were
rolled into two balls. After that, one part of it was made as
a flattened surface. The child was then asked which part is
smaller or bigger.
The second task I chose for my activity was the shape
series task. This task was designed to evaluate the concept
of seriation. In this task, different sizes of ice-cream sticks
were taken and were put in an unjumbled way. The child
was then asked to arrange the ice cream sticks according
to their sizes in an ascending order.

IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN- Informed consent to conduct
the activities was taken at the start of the session from the
parents as well as the child. Proper confidentiality was
maintained throughout the session. Rapport was formed with
both the parents and the child. The participant was informed
that he can withdraw from the task anytime he wants. The
following instructions were given for the clay task - : “Here is a
small lump of clay in front of you, divided into two balls, you
are required to tell me which part is smaller or bigger or are
both balls equal. Now I have flattened one clay ball, observe
both the clay parts and tell me which part is larger or are they
both equal”.
The following instructions were given for the seriation task-:
“Here are different sizes of ice cream sticks in front of you, you
are required to arrange them in an ascending order”.
MATERIALS REQUIRED- Clay, Ice cream sticks.
PARTICIPANT’S CHARACTERSTICS- The child for my task
conduction is a 7 year old boy who lives in Rohini, New Delhi.
He is studying in grade 2. He was cooperative throughout the
task session conducted.

OBSERVATIONS OF THE ASSESMENT

The clay task was given to the child and observations were
made thoroughly. It was observed that in the initial time, the
child was a little bit nervous but after the rapport formation
was built and detailed instructions were given, he was
comfortable throughout the session. Observations that were
made during this task was that child was able to obtain the
required results. When asked him about which clay is smaller or
bigger, he replied that both balls of clay was of equal size and
even when the one ball of clay was flattened, he replied that
both the parts were of same size. The results obtained here
shows us that the child has the ability of conservation or the
ability to hold the true properties of an object even if its looks
are altered.
The shape series task was given to the child and observations
were made thoroughly. It was observed that in the initial time,
the child was hesitating a bit but after the rapport formation
was built and instructions were given, he was able to do the
tasks. Observations that were made during this task was that
child was able to obtain the required results. When asked him
to arrange the ice-cream sticks in an ascending order, he was
able to do it quickly. The results obtained here shows us that
the child has the ability of seriation or the ability to arrange
items in a sequential order.
The clay task was conducted on the 7 year old child to assess
the ability of conservation. Conservation is important to assess
in a child as it tells the ability of the child to hold true
properties of the substances even its appearance changes. It
focuses on the dual representation thinking. William Henry
(1936) did a research study on conservation and found out that
development of child’s psychological structure is built on the
ability to dually hold things or the ability to process two things
at the same time. An interview was conducted with the mother
to support the results from the task. Her mother was asked if
there were any other instances where the child has shown the
ability of conservation before. Her mother replied, “Yes he is
able to show this, he was able to tell that the volume of the
water in the two beakers were same even when their sizes
were different”.
The shape series task was conducted on the 7 year old child to
assess the ability of seriation. Seriation is important to assess in
a child to see whether the child has the ability to arrange items
in a sequential order. Linda S. Siegel (1972) also did a research
study on seriation and found out that seriation tasks involves
the child’s ability to put items in an order and also focused that
child’s failure in this tasks happens due to the language
difficulty. An interview was conducted with the mother to
support the results from the task. Her mother was asked if
there were any other instances where the child shown the
ability of seriation before. Her mother replied, “Yes, he was
able to show this before, he was able to arrange the cups of
different sizes in an ascending order”.

VYGOTSKY’S CONTRIBUTION
Lev Vygotsky gave a socio- cultural theory which is based on the
fact that children acquire their values, beliefs and ideas through
interactions with more knowledgeable members of the society.
He gave the following concepts-:
 Tools of intellectual adaptation- Thinking and problem
solving strategies that children employ after interacting
with more experts in that field.
 The zone of proximal development – Range of tasks too
complex to be mastered alone but can be done with the
help of proper instructions from an expert in that field.
 Scaffolding- Process by which an expert is in constant
interaction with the child in a learning situation to make
them understand the concept in a more easy way.
 Private speech- Speech where the child has self -
utterances or does self- communication in order to
understand the concept better.
The concepts proposed by Ley Vygotsky can be applied to the
realistic context and the tasks conducted above. Concept of
Zone of proximal development can be applied to the clay task
and the shape series task as the child needs assistance in the
initial time of the task and needs instructions on how to do the
tasks and what all is being assessed here. Concept of tools of
intellectual adaptation, scaffolding, and private speech can be
applied to the clay task and the shape series task. Tools of
intellectual adaptation is useful here as the child tries to use
thinking and problem solving strategies while rearranging the
cups and focusing on the size of the clay. Scaffolding is also
used here as the child requires an expert to help him for all the
needed information and can also ask for help if he does not
understand the basic instructions of the tasks. Private speech
can also be applied as the child can indulge in private speech
while thinking or making decisions about how the tasks are to
be done.

CRITICAL EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION

Piaget founded the discipline we today know as cognitive
development. His interest in children’s thinking led to a major
hallmark of the developmental stages. But there were many
concepts that Piaget underestimated .Piaget failed to
understand the difference between competency and
performance. He made an assumption that cognitive structures
are an underlying capacity for the child’s development. He
ignored the fact that internal motivation also plays an
important role. He tended to assume that child who fails in one
of his problems has not understood the concept but he ignored
other abilities as well. Piaget made an assumption that
cognitive development occur in stages but if we see our whole
life, development happens gradually as we progress towards
the later periods of our life. Piaget did not gave any proper
explanations or definitions of cognitive development. He gave
different concepts and ideas but did not give a very coherent
explanation to it. He devoted very little time to the cultural and
the environmental influences. We all know that the
environment or the surroundings we have influences the way
we think and react. Piaget ignored this fact and made an
assumption that all children are same.
Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that
child’s development depends a lot on their cognitive skills.
Cognitive development occurs through the interactions with
the environment and through the child’s abilities. He gave four
stages of development -:
 Sensorimotor stage
 Pre-Operational stage
 Concrete Operational stage
 Formal Operational stage
Two cognitive tasks were conducted on a 7 year old child to
assess the ability of conservation and seriation. The first task
which assessed the ability of conservation was the clay task.
Results obtained met the requirements of the task and child
showed the ability of conservation. The second task which
assessed the ability of seriation was the shape series task.
Results obtained met the requirements of the task and child
showed the ability of seriation.
 SELF LEARNING AND IMPLICATIONS
The experiment and the conduction of the task taught us a lot
about how to design a cognitive tasks. This helped me to learn
how to implement and design an outline for an experiment. I
also gained a lot of insight about ethics in a task conduction,
how to give instructions, rapport formation, how to implement
the clause of confidentiality, informed consent and so on. It
also helped me to learn how to deal with a small child in a
polite and calm way. I also gained a lot of experience about
Piaget’s stages of development and how to implement the
concepts given by him in real life situations.
The results from the experiments can be applied in cognitive
assessments or to assess the cognitive impairments. It can also
be applied in counselling where these tasks could be used to
assess the person’s state of mind at that particular point of
time. This could also be used in school settings to assess the
child’s intellectual functioning and to develop the school’s
curriculum in such a way that it aids the cognitive development
of the child.

REFERENCES
 Wattanbe, N. (2017). Accelerated Cognitive Development
—Piaget’s Conservation Concept. Journal of Educational
 and Developmental Psychology. Vol. 7, No. 2; 2017. Doi:
10.5539/jedp.v7n2p68.
 Siegel, L. (1972). Development of the concept of seriation.
Developmental Psychology. 6(1):135-137. Doi:
10.1037/h0032205.
 Tadi, P., Kelso, I. (2021). Cognitive Assessment. National
Library of Medicine. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556049/
 Elkind, D. (1962). Discrimination, seriation, and
numeration of size and dimensional differences in young
children: Piaget Replication Study IV. Behavioral Sciences
Journal. 104 (1), 275-296. Doi:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1964.10532564

APPENDIX

Conservation tasks -:
Seriation tasks-: