Jean Piaget's Theory of Formal Reason has been widely, used and accepted in the field of psychology. Although many other psychologists have criticized Piaget's Theory of Formal Reasoning and his Stages of Cognitive Development, it has also served as a foundation for others to build on. The Theory of formal reason works like a guideline to help us understand the cognitive development of infants throughout adolescents and even, to some extent, adults. Jean Piaget's Pendulum Study is one of the most straightforward methods that demonstrate how formal reasoning is measured. The purpose of this study is not only, as a student, to practice researching and analyzing data but it also serves to help gain practical experiencing conducting a study and relating it to the presented theory of formal reasoning. In this paper, I have taken four individuals, two adults and two early adolescents and have mimicked Piaget's pendulum study to see if his findings can be replicated. .
The purpose of this exercise.
In the Oscillation of the Pendulum and Operations of exclusion Study, presented in reading 7 of the reading file an outline of the Stages of Formal Reasoning is shown. (Athabasca University, 2001). They begin with stage 1: Indifferentiation between the subject own actions and the motion if the Pendulum. This preoperational stage is characterized by the subject's failure to separate physical actions from mental operations. Therefore a great deal of their observations in regards to this particular study will be communicated as a direct result of their physical relationship with the object or pendulum This stage is also seen is young children likely under the age of eight. Stage two: The Appearance of Serial Ordering and Correspondences but Without Separation of Variables. Often seen in older school age children to pre-adolescence these Individuals can list and order factors that think are involved in the motion of the pendulum but will still mix variables when testing.