According to Jean Piaget, one of the main characteristics of preoperational thinking is ______, which refers to the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation and disregard others.

Piaget was born in Switzerland. He was a student of biology, and also had keen interest in psychology and philosophy. His interest in the study of cognition evolved while working in a laboratory.

Key Points

• According to Jean Piaget, centralization refers to the tendency of preoperational children to focus on a single, dominant aspect of a situation while neglecting other relevant aspects.
• For example, a child might judge the fairness of a game solely based on who got the biggest piece of cake, ignoring the number of pieces or the size of other pieces distributed.

Hint

• Permeation: This concept describes the child's belief that their own mental states (thoughts, feelings) can also affect the external world or other people's minds. 
• Cause-effect analysis: While young children begin developing this ability in the preoperational stage, they often struggle with understanding complex cause-and-effect relationships.
• Decentralization: This term signifies the ability to consider multiple perspectives and factors, a skill that typically develops beyond the preoperational stage.

Therefore, centralization is the correct answer.