Social interaction that influences on children’s cognitive development : Focus on socio-cognitive conflict

The aim of this study was to re-examine the hypotheses of Mugny & Doise (1978). Seventy-seven preschoolers worked on Piaget’s perspective taking task in three sessions: pre-test, social interaction session, post-test. One week separated each session. The participants were divided into 3 cognitive levels: no compensate (less advanced level), partially compensate (intermediate), totally compensate (most advanced level) based on their performance of pretest session. At social interaction session, participants performed in pair (with others at the same / different level of cognitive development). This study generally confirmed the results of the prior research: collective cognitive performances are superior to those of individuals, children can perform better following social interaction session by confronting involving divergent points of view. It also shows that more progress took place when children at different level of cognitive development worked together (conflictual participants) than with same level. Prior study showed an appropriate distance of cognitive level between two children that facilitates such progress, on the contrary, this study presented that less advanced participants worked with highest level participants made remarkable progress. To explain that inconsistency, this study emphasizes the necessity of distinguishing a generalization of performances from simple reproductions of initial performances of peer interaction and elucidates what aspects of social interaction determine the degree of individual progress