It is suggested that the classical conservation justifications (reversibility, compensation, identity, identity action) are both formally and empirically inadequate justifications for the conservation deduction, particularly from a pedagogical perspective. A test for the distinction between true and empirical reversibility, that subjects know of…

The shift from preoperational thought to operativity entails the idea of necessity. The concrete operativity tasks were analyzed from this perspective. Results from a broad class of conservation training studies were also analyzed from the perspective of their efficacy, fidelity to necessity, and implications for school instruction. (Author/BW)

Kindergarten and first-grade children conserved physical attributes of inanimate objects more easily than the physical attributes of animate objects. Significant conservation differences between various animate objects also were found. (Author/RL)