Criticism of Piaget

I've often been surprised at how much people in education(and laypersons as well) take for granted that Jean Piaget's work may be false. Although we question many aspects of our lives, such as religion, politics, even the decision to vaccinate children against viruses and cancers, we often do not question "big names" in psychology.

Well, we should.

I'm not going to go into the intricacies of Piaget's theory. If you are interested, you should reference the Wikipedia article on his life and work. However, in general, Piaget's theory indicates that children progress intellectually through four stages of development: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operations and Formal Operations. At each one of these levels, Piaget posited, there were different challenges that the child needed to deal with. He also indicated that unless the child mastered the tasks in the one stage, he or she could not master the tasks in other stages.

There are problems that are inherent in all theories which posit "stages" of development. Development does not occur in discrete stages - it occurs whenever the environment places increased demands and/or provides less support to the individual. In our society, it simply appears that we all tend to place these demands on children at around the same time - this makes it appear that we are witnessing "stages" of development.

Zimmerman conducted a series of various studies beginning around the 1960's and up until today demonstrating that if the environment placed certain demands, then children would surpass what was expected of them.

Here are some other studies:

Baillargeon et al. (1985). Infants could identify, to a reasonable degree, events which violated the laws of physics, even though, Piaget noted that infants at the "sensorimotor" stage could not do so.

Das Gupta & Bryant (1988). Children were able to follow simple transformations, even though, Piaget noted that children at the "pre-operational" stage could not do so.

Hughes (1978). Children were able to take the perspective of multiple people even though, Piaget noted that children at the "pre-operational" stage could not do so.

Light, Buckingham & Robbins (1979). When children were taught to pay attention to the concrete properties of an event (e.g., pouring liquids into different sized beakers), then they were able to do so, even though, Piaget noted that children at the "pre-operational" stage could not do so.

McCarrigle (1978). When given discrete instruction about the super-ordinate and sub-ordinate categories, children were able to classify information effectively.

Piaget was instrumental in getting people to think about children as individuals who are developing. However, children develop in radically different ways. Assessments of intelligence (WISC-IV) appreciate this as these children tend to go through items as much as possible. There is no cap on how much a child can or cannot do on a particular set of items.

There is no such thing as a "repressed memory"

A few nights ago, I shocked my class by making the statement, "there are no such things as repressed memories". People seemed quite bothered by that. I needed to leave early from the class, so I wanted to publish some of my musings on the issue.

First, why is the concept of "repressed memory" so important to a school psychologist (or, why is it important for a school psychologist to know that there is no such thing as a repressed memory?)? It has particular relevance in cases of suspected or alleged physical and sexual abuse. It is important for school psychologists to understand how memory works and why the repressed memory is an urban psychological myth.

Second, let's get some clarity:

• A repressed memory, according to some theories of psychology, is a memory (often traumatic) of an event or environment which is stored by the unconscious mind but outside the awareness of the conscious mind.
• Some theorize that these memories may be recovered (that is, integrated into consciousness) years or decades after the event, often via therapy. They may also reoccur in dreams.
• The idea of "dissociative amnesia" makes the assumption that memory repression is possible. The repressed memory concept was popularized during the 1980s and partly the 1990s by the popular press, some feminist groups, and some psychological schools of thought
• The concept was originated by Sigmund Freud in his 1896 essay On the etiology of hysteria.
  Freud abandoned his theory between 1897-1905, and during 1920-1923 replaced it with his impulse-based concept of Id, Super-ego, and Ego.

There were two principle reasons that Freud abandoned his theory of repressed memory (Freud, Sigmund 1952. Zur Geschichte der analytischen Bewegung, from: Gesammelte Werke in Einzelbänden Volume 10)

• he increasingly came upon evidences in individual cases logically outruling any possibility the 'recovered' events could have occurred
• he found himself able to direct his more suggestible patients into any recollection of memory he wanted to (especially while they were undergoing hypnosis), even more so in an entirely boundless manner when he turned to sexual matters.

This is an important set of points, as the father of psychoanalysis, quickly retracted the construct of "repressed memory" for the same reason that modern researchers have also rejected this notion.

Third you may ask if there is there any scientific basis for the construct of a "repressed memory"? Well, there are some conjectures and possibilities. For example, one theory discusses how the hippocampus may selectively choose to not consolidate memories which are traumatic. Others point to the role of cortisol damage to the hippocampus. These "hypotheses" are explored in Faigman DL, Kaye DH, Saks MJ, Sanders J, eds. Science in the law: social and behavioral science issues. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 2002, pp 487-526.

I will tell you how it all turns out. These are just conjectures which don't make sense on any level neurologically.

Cortisol does indeed cause damage to the hippocampal structures and loops, but it does not erase traumatic events. In fact, what we have identified in PTSD is that many people have re-occurrences of the traumatic event, so the event memory is on a constant rewind. And, while cortisol damage may affect the person's accurate recollection of the trauma, there will still be a recollection that the event took place.

Studies of over than 10,000 trauma victims found none that repressed or recovered memories of trauma. (Pope HG Jr, Oliva PS, Hudson JI. Repressed memories. The scientific status of research on repressed memories. In: Faigman DL, Kaye DH, Saks MJ, Sanders J, eds. Science in the law: social and behavioral science issues. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 2002, pp 487-526). Similarly, some studies of thousands of abused children found no evidence at all for so-called repressed or recovered memories. Coupled with laboratory studies and other naturalistic investigations, most prominent researchers in the field agree with Harvard University's Richard McNally and consider the notion of repressed memory to be a pernicious bit of psychiatric folklore. (McNally RJ. The science and folklore of traumatic amnesia. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice 11:29-33, 2004).

Then we get to young children. Young children's memory is incredibly inaccurate, as their hippocampal structures are developing from conception until about three years old. Although they may forget (I've blogged on this before), they do not "repress" the memory - they just developmentally cannot consolidate memories effectively and cannot recall them effectively.

Another difference is actual amnesia following a trauma. This is not due to any psychic events impinging upon mental makeup. Retrograde amnesia is a real neurological issue which comes about through some physical assault to the brain which causes hippocampal structures to temporarily (or in some cases permanently) not recall as effectively or efficiently. The important aspect of retrograde amnesia is that it is caused by physical etiologies and not by psychic or psychological etiology.

Later I will discuss some court cases which have impacted this area.

Math anxiety saps working memory

Worrying about how you’ll perform on a math test may actually contribute to a lower test score This worry can often sap the brain’s limited amount of working memory, a resource needed to compute difficult math problems.

This research was conducted by Mark Ashcroft, a psychologist at the University of Nevada Los Vegas. He speculated that math anxiety occupies a person’s working memory.

Ashcroft speculated while easy math tasks such as addition require only a small fraction of a person’s working memory, harder computations require much more.

Worrying about math takes up a large chunk of a person’s working memory stores as well, spelling disaster for the anxious student who is taking a high-stakes test.

Stress about how one does on tests like college entrance exams can make even good math students choke.

Although test preparation classes can help students overcome this anxiety, they are limited to students whose families can afford them.

Teasing

This article was written by Dr. Collie Conelly (http://www.independent.com/online_onlys/2007/02/teasing_a_real_problem_and_sol.html ) Teasing is a problem with children of all ages. Psychologists define teasing as an ambiguous message containing both humor and hostility. The ambiguity makes an appropriate response difficult.

Most children identify teasing as the number one concern that they have regarding school.

Children are typically told to ignore teasing or become aggressive with the teaser. The research on ignoring indicates that ignoring a teaser usually incites a more aggressive response from the teaser. Additionally, ignoring probably erodes the self-esteem of the target because of the inactive, helpless stance. Conversely, acting aggressive when teased is an active stance which could help self-esteem in the short run, but there are long term draw-backs. Aggressive action can easily escalate into a physical fight and recommending aggressive action communicates that harming another person is an acceptable value.

This article discusses an alternative respose to teasing called affiliative humor. As Dr. Conely describes, affiliative humor focuses upon the humorous part of the teasing message. By focusing upon the humor in the teasing message the target takes control of the interaction and transforms the interaction into a level interaction rather than a one-down interaction. The message is that we are both funny and clever. Affiliative humor jokes about the topic without putting any person down.

Poverty And Social Exclusion Increases Risk Of Mental Illness In Children With Learning Disabilities

A new report from the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities and Lancaster University, UK, has found that children with learning disabilities are six times more likely to have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder than other children in Britain.

According to The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents with Learning Disabilities in Britain, the increased risk of mental illness is not always caused by a young person's learning disability, but instead because of exposure to greater poverty and social exclusion than experienced by non-disabled children.

The report, based on the experiences of over 18,000 children aged between 5 and 15 years old, says that one in three (33 per cent) children with learning disabilities are likely to have a mother with mental health needs and nearly half are living in poverty (47 per cent).

Young people with learning disabilities also have fewer friends than other children living in Britain and are more likely to suffer abuse and be involved in serious accidents.

While the report found that children with learning disabilities are at an increased risk of mental illness than other children in Britain, nearly half (44 per cent) of the families surveyed said they did not receive sufficient help from medical professionals, social workers or mental health services.

Although this review of data was conducted in Great Britain, there are a lot of things that we can take away from this. Most importantly, we should consider learning disabilities as co-occurring with other forms of pathology.

Real play vs. artificial entertainment

This article was sent to me from Stephen Lange, a good friend who studied school neuropsychology with me. He co-wrote this article with Brent Thompson.

They talk about the TV Kart, a shopping cart designed to continuously entertain children while their adult companions shop. The principal entertainment offered is exactly what the cart's name implies.

I agree with the point of the article: that is to say, little by little, we are supplanting natural opportunities for children to interact with the world with electronic, passive, automated interactions, which is definitely a negative.

From a young age, babies are exposed to mindless videos via Baby Einstein (which has been shown to not work); as children grow older, they spend inordinate amounts of time on sites such as myspace and youtube - I think that this article is correct in its warning.

Babies do form memories; they just forget...

The AP reports that babies' rate of forgetting is even faster than that of adults, this quote taken directly from Patricia J. Bauer of Duke University said Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Bauer was part of a panel discussing "infant amnesia," the puzzling inability of people to remember events early in life.

Previous neuropsychological orthodoxy stated that babies' brains were simply unable to form memories, but Bauer said new research indicates that is incorrect; this was due to the fact that the hippocampal structures were not solidly developed at such a young age (they tend to solidify at age 3).

The ability to form memories depends on a network of structures in the brain and these develop at different times, Bauer said. As the networks come together between 6 months and 18 months of life, researchers see increased efficiency in the ability to form short-and long-term memory, she said.

From age six months to two years, memory increases from about 24 hours to a year researchers stated. But, noting that children, like adults, forget, she compared the brains of infants and adults to colanders used to drain food. The adult colander has small holes, for draining something like orzo or rice, while the infant colander has larger holes, such as for draining large penne pasta, but allowing more information to flow out.

Bauer's research proceeded by testing infants by using objects such as cups and blocks. In one test a baby would be shown two cups, a block would be put into one, the other cup would be put over the top and the group would be shaken to form a rattle.

This is something children do not do instinctively, she explained, but once they see it they can copy it, and researchers can see how long they remember when given the same objects.
Oakes said she studied infants by watching how long they would look at something. Babies will look longer at something new than something they are familiar with, she said, which allows researchers to calculate how long the baby remembers something.

Tracy DeBoer of the University of California, Davis, said babies born to diabetic mothers are at increased risk of memory loss. Such children may have shortages of oxygen and iron before birth and that can cause impaired memory when they are growing. That impairment did not occur in cases where the mothers' diabetes was controlled during pregnancy, she added.

Behavioral techniques uses to influence children's eating habits

Researchers in London have developed a program to influence children's eating habits using behavioral application techniques. The program was funded by the Irish government, the European Union Commission, and Unilever.

• They created an educational video program called "Food Dudes" that relies on peer pressure, peer modeling, and a reward system to persuade kids to eat more fruit and vegetables and shun fatty foods.
• The Food Dudes video stars a quartet of preadolescent kids who get superpowers from eating fruits and vegetables. The dudes battle General Junk, who steals healthy food, thereby robbing the world of its life force.
• The Food Dudes are slightly older than the kids targeted in the program, making them believable role models. Prizes like small toys, pencils and pens are also an enticement.
• "In some respects, we use the same techniques as multinationals selling junk food" said Dr. Fergus Lowe, a University of Wales psychologist who was part of the team that devised the program.
• A pilot program at 150 schools in Ireland, targeting children aged 2 to 11, doubled intake of fruit and vegetables and in some cases boosted consumption of such foods by 10 to 14 times, the organizers say.
• In one primary school, the fruit consumption of children aged five and six more than doubled. The kids were originally only eating 28 percent of their fruit; six months later they were eating nearly 60 percent. Vegetable consumption jumped from eight percent to 32 percent.
• In a control school, where the program was not used, no change in fruit or vegetable consumption was noted.
• Scotland has introduced a modified version of the program in 210 schools in Glasgow, and England is experimenting with the Food Dudes in schools in London and Plymouth. The World Health Organization recently honored Food Dudes with a best practices award.
  "People had assumed that it would be very difficult to make fruits and vegetables appealing to children, but Food Dudes has proven that that's not true," said Dr. Francesco Branca, WHO's European adviser for nutrition and food security, who is not involved in the Food Dudes program.
• In 2005, the government announced it would ban school cafeterias from serving poor-quality hamburgers and hot dogs. From this September, vending machines selling soft drinks, chocolate bars and potato chips to students will be outlawed. The poor quality of school food first rose to the national consciousness thanks to Oliver's TV series "Jamie's School Dinners," which shocked Britons by showing them exactly what kids were eating at school.
• Changing food habits isn't easy. Humans are genetically predisposed to prefer sugary and fatty foods - an evolutionary twist that made sense in prehistoric times but not anymore.
  "Back when we lived in caves and children were crawling in forests, anything that tasted sweet was generally safe to eat," said Paul Sacher, a dietitian at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. High-fat foods were also desirable because they were good sources of energy. "Today, evolutionary tendencies are actually our worst enemy," said Sacher. "We're beyond the stage where we have to be that careful, yet we still have this natural desire for sweet things."

The New Orleans problem is still at hand

This article describes how 10 months after the Katrina disaster, New Orleans and the surrounding area is still dealing with issues of depression and suicide. Click here to read the article. Although the article does not necessarily point any fingers as to who is at fault, my take is that the federal gov't., specifically, FEMA has really dropped the ball in providing mental health assistance.

Back in February, I wrote something on this issue on my other blog.




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