Kieran Egan's "What Does Piaget's Theory Describe?

Egan is skeptical but objective in his attempt to find what Piaget's theory really describes. He claims that he may be somewhat biased because he is a non-psychologist looking at a psychological theory, not through the language of the theory, but rather through the data, into the theory. The irony in his comment about being biased is apparent in his determination to test all empirical evidence as a scientist does, by applying a theory to different situations, putting it in a different context, or seeing behaviour, not through the language of theory, but as behaviour unimpeded by theoretical preconceptions. It is to Egan's credibility that he, a non-p

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swered correctly. McGarrigle then asked, "Are there more black cows or sleeping cows?" to which almost half of the children answered correctly. The second question supplied an emphasis, inherent in the distinction, "sleeping." The detailed account of McGarrigle's experiment is included to show Egan's commonsense approach to a psychological theory that has held an undue influence on education for too long. Far from a major theoretical breakthrough, McGarrigle just demonstrated that language, that is to say, the way a question is asked, can influence a children (or adult's) response. In the same manner that most adults quickly read the optical illusion, "Once upon upon a time" as "Once upon a time," (if you want to see how this works, write it on paper in the following order, with capital letters: first line--"ONCE," second line--"UPON," third line--"UPON," fourth line--"A,"--fifth line--"TIME"), perhaps children, like adults, anticipate an answer, thus displaying a quick and automatic, but logical, response. Isn't it more reasonable (or practical) to compare quantities of two distinct sorts--those quantities of red and white, or those quantities of black cows and sleeping cows, than it is to compare a subset to a whole set
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Theory Describe, Instead Piaget, McGarrigle McGarrigle, egan 1982, References Egan, piaget's theory, white flowers, Fraser University, red white, red white flowers, red flowers, cited egan 1982, cited egan, egan 1982 notes, futile disservice, black cows, 1982 notes, 1982 12, 1978 cited egan, theory futile disservice,
Approximate Word count = 1846
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)