Cognitive development in aborigines of central Australia : concrete operations and perceptual activities
Abstract
This study investigates aspects of the cognitive development in Australian Aborigines which are related to the
theory of Jean Piaget. The following tests were used: (a) Logico-mathematical tests: Conservation of Quantity, Weight, Volume and Length, and the Seriation of lengths;
(b) Spatial tests: Linear, reverse and circular Orders, Rotation of landscape models and Horizontality; (c) Illusions: Mliller-Lyer, Horizontal-Vertical, Delboeuf
and Oppel-Kundt figures, and the Size-Weight illusion. These tests were administered to children aged 5 to 16 years (and to some adults) in the following three samples:
(1) 65 1'low-contact'' Aborigines, living on a remote reserve in Central Australia ('Areyonga'). (2) 100 ''high-contact'' Aborigines, living on a mission
station in Central Australia with a long history of European contact (~Hermannsburg').
(3) 80 European children, living in Canberra.
Three hypotheses were derived from previous cross cultural studies in genetic psychology and from an analysis of the ecological and cultural background of the Australian
Aborigines: Hypothesis l: The qualitative aspects of operational development (i.e. the stages) are identical in Australian
Aborigines and in Europeans, but the rate of development is lower in Aborigines:
Hypothesis 2: The rate of operational development is faster in the high-contact group than in the low-contact
group. Hypothesis 3: Aborigines, because of their cultural background will develop spatial concepts more readily than
logico-mathematical concepts.
Hypotheses 4 and 5 were respectively based on Piaget's theory of perception (Piaget, 1966, 1969a), and on Segall et al. 's (1966) ecological cue validity theory:
Hypothesis 4: The following phenomena are inversely related to operational level: (a) the susceptibility to primary illusions; (b) the extent of the decrease with practice in susceptibility to primary illusions; (c) the
age at which the maximum susceptibility to secondary illusions is reached.
Hypothesis 5: (a) The order of susceptibility to the Mliller-Lyer illusion is the following (from highest to
lowest): Canberra, Hermannsburg, Areyonga; (b) the order of susceptibility to the Horizontal-Vertical illusion is the
following (from highest to lowest): Areyonga, Hermannsburg,
Canberra. The following hypotheses were set up on the basis of the results of a previous study dealing with the development
of conservation concepts in Australian Aborigines {de Lemos, 1966, l969b):
Hypothesis 6: The order of difficulty usually found with the tests of conservation of Quantity and Weight is reversed in Australian Aborignes: easier than Quantity.
Weight is found to be Hypothesis 7: At Hermannsburg, the performance of partblood
Aborigines is better than that of full-blood Aborigines. Hypotheses l, 2 and 3 were confirmed. Hypotheses 4 and 5 received only qualified support, and hypotheses 6 and
7 were rejected. The results confirm Piaget's general theory of intellectual
development, but indicate that specific environmental, cultural and ecological factors may influence the rate at
which cognitive development occurs.