Since Jean Piaget's search tasks for infants overly depend on measuring infants' ability, infants' competence may be underestimated. Researchers criticising Piaget's theory highlight that when eye...

Extracted text: Since Jean Piaget's search tasks for infants overly depend on measuring infants' ability, infants' competence may be underestimated. Researchers criticising Piaget's theory highlight that when eye fixations are measured in violation-of-expectation scenarios, infants will show looking at magical compared to non- magical events. An alternative possibility raised by Piaget's supporters is that responses to violation-of-expectation scenarios may reflect biases. Supporters of Piaget's theory also point out that children in the pre-operational stage are still undergoing cognitive development as they show characteristic errors in thinking. For example, when 4-year-old Bryan is asked whether there are more cows or more animals (in a group of six cows, five dogs, and four donkeys), Bryan is more likely to say there are more cows - suggesting that Bryan does not yet understand Nonetheless, the fact that clarifying instructions can improve young kindergarten children's cognitive performance tends to Piaget's theory.