Reported is a study which measured conservation of length among kindergarten and first-grade subjects using several verbal and nonverbal procedures. The results indicated that conservation of length is not a simple unitary concept, but has empirical gradations. (Author/CT)

Significant gains in conservation of number, amount, mass and weight were made by 53 previously nonconserving first graders who either simply observed conservers' performance on mass and weight problems or argued with conservers about these problems. (Author/CW)

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)

Describes procedures, results, and conclusions of a study designed to investigate the effects of (1) the height of an object, (2) state of decay of an object, (3) the reversibility of an event, and (4) the affective aspects of an event on the development of the conservation of time concept in elementary school children. Results indicated that…

In two experiments (N=210) conservers, transitional conservers, and nonconservers were directed to lie or pretend to other children that their judgments and explanations of a series of conservation problems were the opposite of what they really were. Nonconservers and transitional subjects in both studies made large and significant gains in…

It was hypothesized that the acquisition of conservation behavior would be facilitated when stimuli were more concrete than abstract. Eighty white second graders were randomly assigned to four groups and presented with three conservation-of-weight problems. Clay balls and the conservation transformations were either shown, demonstrated, and…

The purpose of this study was to determine if an effective conservation training procedure would be one in which a child was confronted with opposing points of view. Subjects were 108 children with a mean age of 6.7 years. In two experiments, a group of three children (generally one nonconserver and two conservers) was required to respond with one…

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate whether the effect of observing a peer who was conserving could facilitate subsequent acquisition and transfer of conservation ability in a nonconserving child. Eighty-two nonconserving first grade children acquired the ability to give conservation judgments and reasons on six conservation…

The main problem of this study was to attempt to determine the source of adults' nonconservation error as well as to explain young children's apparent success. Subjects were 188 children from elementary school, high school, and college. (Author/MP)

The expectation that an effective conservation training procedure would be one in which the child was confronted with opposing points of view was investigated in an experiment and a replication experiment in which the child's point of view was brought into conflict with those of other children. (Author/RY)

Primary school children at different stages of acquisition of conservation pretended that their judgments on a series of conservation problems were the opposite of their actual beliefs. The nonconservers and transitional conservers made significant gains in conservation, while the conservers did not regress. Cognitive dissonance training is…