Three Mountains Task

Children are often considered selfish; they like to talk about themselves and struggle to see others' perspectives. According to Piaget, the ability to see the world through someone else's eyes develops with age. Piaget proposed that young children below seven are intellectually unable to empathise with others because of their egocentrism.

So... are children incapable of empathy? We will address this question by considering how Piaget studied perspective-taking and egocentrism in children.

• We will start by introducing Piaget's three mountain tasks in the context of Piaget's theory of cognitive development.
• Next, we will look into the Piaget and Inhelder three mountains task procedure to understand how egocentrism can be studied.
• Moving on, we will Piaget and Inhelder's three mountains task results and what they tell us about perspective-taking in children.
• Finally, we will discuss points of evaluation of Piaget's three mountains task by focusing on Piaget and Inhelder's three mountains task's strengths and weaknesses.

Empathy in children develops with age, according to Piaget, freepik.com

What is Piaget's Three Mountain Task?

The three-mountain task was designed to test children's ability to take another person's perspective. Piaget theorised that children's cognitive abilities develop in stages. He outlined four universal stages of development: the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage.

Certain cognitive limitations characterise each stage, and passing from one stage to another requires children to achieve certain cognitive milestones. For example, in the preoperational stage, children make cognitive errors related to centration, conservation and egocentrism. However, as they enter the concrete operational stage, they develop the ability to consider multiple points of view and aspects of a situation, which allows them to overcome those errors.

The preoperational stage lasts from the age of two to the age of seven. To assess children's egocentrism at this stage of development, different tasks have been designed that require children to take the perspective of another person. One of the first tasks designed for that purpose was the three-mountain task used in the study of Piaget and Inhelder (1956).

Piaget and Inhelder's (1956) three mountains task: Aim and method

The aim of the study conducted by Piaget and Inhelder (1956) was to investigate the age at which children begin to take the perspective of another person and how egocentrism affects children's reasoning about the world.

Piaget and Inhelder interviewed 100 children between the ages of four and eight to investigate egocentrism using the three mountains task. They used a 3D model of three different mountains. One mountain had snow on the top, another had a house on top of it, and the last one had a cross on top of it. Which mountain was in the front and fully visible to the observer and which mountains were partially obstructed depended on where the observer was in relation to the model.

Piaget used a model of mountains to investigate egocentrism, flaticon.com

Piaget and Inhelder's Three Mountains Task Procedure

The children who participated in the study were first encouraged to explore the model from different points of view and then asked to sit on one side of the model. Then a doll was placed on another side of the model. Children were shown pictures of the model taken from different perspectives and asked which one best represents what the doll is seeing right now.

If a child chose a picture that represented the perspective they were currently seeing, it would indicate that they are unable to take the perspective of someone else and de-centrate. The child was considered to have passed the test if they selected a picture that represented the model from the perspective of the doll. After the children made their choice, they were asked why they picked the photo.

Children were also asked to use pieces of cardboard to create a representation of what the model looked like from their perspective and the perspective of the experimenter standing on the other side of the model.

Piaget and Inhelder's Three Mountains Task Results

The study's results showed that children below the age of seven still in the preoperational stage didn't consistently pass the test.

• The youngest, four-year-old participants consistently failed the task and would opt for a picture that represented their perspective rather than the dolls.

• There was more variability in the performance of children closer to the concrete operational stage. Six-year-olds would sometimes select a picture different to their perspective, but they were not very accurate at deciding what the doll saw.

• Seven and eight-year-olds consistently selected pictures that accurately represented the doll's perspective.

• Similarly, younger children were unable to correctly arrange the pieces of cardboard to represent the perspective of the experimenter, while older children could pass this task as well.

Piaget and Inhelder's three mountains task conclusion

The findings that children below the age of seven have difficulty in taking the perspective of another person suggest that children in the preoperational stage are egocentric. In contrast, children in the concrete operational stage can overcome egocentrism. This supports Piaget's stage model of cognitive development.

However, the study also showed that some six-year-olds had some understanding of other perspectives. This suggests that there might be a transitional period before entering the next developmental stage or that some children pass through stages faster than others.

Evaluation of Piaget's Three Mountains Task

The study of Piaget and Inhelder (1956) significantly contributed to our understanding of children's intellectual abilities and provided experimental support for Piaget's theory. However, it has also been criticised, as other studies of perspective-taking in children found that the three mountains task might underestimate children's abilities due to its complexity.

Piaget and Inhelder's Three Mountains Task Strengths

• One of the strengths of the study of Piaget and Inhelder is that it collected both quantitative and qualitative data from children, allowing for an in-depth understanding of children's reasoning. Moreover, by using interviews, the researchers could also ensure that children understood the task.

• The study also employed a standardised procedure. All children were tested using the same task and procedure, which allowed the researchers to compare children's performance across age groups.

• Moreover, a standardised procedure also allows replications of the study by independent researchers to confirm the findings. Overall, studies which used similar tasks and designs to test egocentrism confirmed the original findings of Piaget and Inhelder, adding to the study's reliability.

Piaget and Inhelder's Three Mountains Task Weakness

• Studies using different, perhaps more realistic, experimental procedures show that children can see another person's perspective much earlier than Piaget theorised. It is possible that the complexity or the abstract nature of Piaget's study made it more difficult for children. Another explanation for the contradicting evidence is that younger children have difficulty with spatial reasoning but can still empathise with others.