The large number of studies which have been published recently on the cross-cultural implications of Piaget's theory are extremely heterogeneous. This summary attempts to classify them into descriptive and quasi-experimental studies; the former are seen as attempting to verify Piaget's stages in non-Western cultures. They are further subdivided according to three interpretations of Piaget's stages: 1) the three global stages (sensori-motor, concrete operational and formal); 2) horizontal decalages; 3) sub-stages on particular tests. Whereas the qualitative aspects of Piaget's theory (the stages and individual reactions to the tasks) are verified in most cases, the rate of operational development is affected by cultural factors, sometimes to the extent that the concrete operational stage is not reached by large proportions of non-Western samples. A great deal of further quasi-experimental research is needed in order to link these findings to specific cultural factors.
There are two aspects of Piaget's theory that can be at least partly distinguished: (1) The stage theory, or the development of particular concepts through a series of hierarchical stages; (2) The metatheory, or the interactionist model of adaptation (assimilation and accommodation) that explains the mechanisms of cognitive development. Most cross-cultural research has been based on the first of these aspects, using and adapting "Piagetian tasks" in various conceptual areas. Some findings of this line of enquiry, and the methodological problems encountered, are briefly reviewed. It is argued that no specific task, nor a combination of them, can be taken to measure a general cognitive level; the tasks measure the attainment of particular concepts rather than "intelligence". New evidence is presented on the reliability and validity of Piagetian tasks used in a cross-cultural setting.In the second model, intelligence is broadly defined as adaptation to the environment; in this conception it would be reasonable to expect divergent paths of cognitive development in different cultures. In other words, one might need a different Piagetian psychology in each culture, but based on universal deep mechanisms.As a modest contribution to a more "emic" study of intelligence, the concept of intelligence as defined by the Baoult of Ivory Coast, n'glouilt is presented and discussed. Ratings on n'glouil2 and its different components are related to performance on Piagetian tasks in a sample of 8-to 9-year-old rural Baoult children. The thrust of the paper is to point out once more the cultural relativity of any conception of intelligence, be it from a Piagetian or any other perspective.Recent volumes devoted to the study of intelligence (Resnick 1976; Sternberg 1982) are showing many new trends in theorizing about intellectual competence, yet no convincing paradigm has come to contradict the basic position of cultural relativism taken by cross-cultural psychologists over the last three decades (cf. for example Biesheu-
The starting point of this study is the apparent contradiction between the existence in Yupno (Papua New Guinea) culture of an elaborate number system and the lack of importance attributed to counting in everyday life. The study is designed to answer two questions: To what extent is the model described by the socially most prestigious expert shared by other Yupno men? How can the system be used to solve new, unfamiliar problems? Indeed, the variability found in the description and use of the number system is very important, to the extent where almost each subject uses it in a slightly different, idiosyncratic way. Without the help of a psychological perspective, this astounding variability may have gone unnoticed. However, to the anthropologist, it is too early to speak of a "requiem for the omniscient informent" because the ideal model "fits" with the rest of the culture-for example, the symbolic separation between the left and right parts of the body. Arithmetic computations can be performed by the older Yupno men using the traditional Yupno system and by children using school algorithms but not by those young men who are in between two cultures.
Berry's (1971) model of ecological functionalism is extended to Piagetian developmental psychology. It is predicted that the rate of development of concrete operations may be partly determined by ecological and cultural factors. In particular, if three subsistence-economy populations are placed on an ecocultural scale, with low food-accumulating, nomadic, hunting groups at one extreme, and high food-accumulating, sedentary, agricultur-alist groups at the other extreme, the former are expected to develop spatial concepts more rapidly than will the latter, whereas the sedentary group is expected to attain concepts of conservation of quantity, weight, and volume more rapidly than nomadic groups will. The model is largely supported by the results of a study involving 190 children (aged six to fourteen from three cultural groups: Canadian Eskimos, Australian Aborigines, and Ebrie Africans. The discussion centers on ambiguous results obtained in the age range eight to eleven years for the conservation tasks.
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