Answer:
Animism and egocentrism represent limitations in the preoperational child's thinking in that they indicate an inability to: distinguish between different or real perspectives.
Explanation:
Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) developed a theory which claims that children develop through four stages of cognition: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Animism and egocentrism are limitations seen in a child's thinking on the second stage, the preoperational stage.
Animism means the child believes inanimate objects have lifelike qualities. She believes, for instance, that an object may have feelings.
Egocentrism means the child cannot differentiate between her own and other people's perspective. Have you seen a child playing hide-and-seek by simply closing her eyes? That is an example of egocentrism. She thinks you cannot see her because she cannot see you. She does not understand yet that the two of you have different perspectives.
As we can see, the two concepts show as child's inability to distinguish between different (egocentrism) or real (animism) perspectives.
