The Coordination of Pairs

Abstract

We have observed for some time² that when children are asked to order a series of objects in increasing sizes A < B < C, the youngest subjects simply proceed in pairs, such as CF,AD,EH, etc., maintaining the order ‘a little one, a big one’, but they are not subsequently able to coordinate them into a single series. This also occurs with the first classifications made from ‘figurai collections’, with the youngest subjects doing well in constructing a composite figure, such as a row, but in general placing an object in relation to the one just before it (e.g., a square after a square, or a sheep following a shepherd), without however, taking into account the other preceding terms, in other words, once again without coordinating the pairs in spite of the linear form of the whole. In 1947, Wallon (Les origines de la pensée chez l’enfant) focused on this idea of pairs seeing in it the most elementary form of cognitive structuring. This idea was also contained in Hoeffding’s comparison (in La pensée humaine) of the workings of thought to the successive positions of a compass, where one of the legs, although placed on a given point, provides no information until the other leg is placed on a second point or on another object.

With the collaboration of C. Fot.