Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECTIVE AND EUCLIDEAN SPACE IN CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS (PIAGET, SPATIAL CONCEPTS, STAGE, SYNCHRONOUS, COGNITIVE)
Abstract
This study addressed Jean Piaget's claim of parallel, synchronous, and stage development of four infralogical projective groupings and four infralogical Euclidean groupings during his proposed concrete operational stage of cognitive development. Initially, retest reliability of the tasks used was established. Twenty subjects from three age groups (Group 1 refers to 8- to 9-year olds, Group 2 refers to 10- to 11-year olds, and Group 3 refers to 20- to 30-year olds) participated in the retest experiment. Obtained Pearson product moment correlation coefficients for Groups 1, 2, and 3 were .68, .89, and .82, respectively, indicating adequate reliability. Using the same scores, Cronbach's alpha was calculated for each group to determine the internal consistency levels of the projective and Euclidean scales. Then 20 subjects from each of the three age groups were administered the tasks to cross-validate obtained alpha levels. All alpha levels were <.70 (ranging from -.18 to .62). Results indicated nonsynchronous and nonstage development of the groupings. To measure parallel, synchronous, and stage development of these concepts, 50 subjects from each of the three age groups were administered the tasks. For Groups 1 and 2, results of the scalogram analyses for the projective tasks, Euclidean tasks, and all tasks revealed nonparallel and nonstage development of the groupings. Results of analyses of variance confirmed nonstage development. Results of the McNemar test for the significance of changes between performance on task pairs for Groups 1 and 2 combined, and for adults revealed nonsynchronous development of all paired groupings, with all projective tasks being easier. Chi-square analyses revealed nonsignificant differences in performance on all of the tasks between Groups 1 and 2 indicating a lack of stage development within the 8- to 11-year-old subjects. Chi-square analyses between Groups 2 and 3 showed significant differences in performance on four tasks indicating improvement in adulthood. Results failed to support parallel, synchronous, or stage development of the groupings.
Subject Area
Developmental psychology
Recommended Citation
SANDHAM, LINDA JOY, "THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECTIVE AND EUCLIDEAN SPACE IN CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS (PIAGET, SPATIAL CONCEPTS, STAGE, SYNCHRONOUS, COGNITIVE)" (1986). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8620819.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8620819