Eight quantitative comparison tasks were administered to four- to seven-year-olds. Findings indicated that performance on comparison tasks was related to performance on a number conservation test and to age. Factor analysis yielded a unitary factor. (RH)

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Educational and Industrial Testing Service Concept Assessment Kit-Conservation (EITS Kit). Presented are an overview of the concept of conservation, a description of the EITS Kit, and results of the study. (MT)

Replicates the study by McGarrigle and Donaldson (1975). Considers several objections to McGarrigle and Donaldson's claim that the tasks they used did in fact test the child's ability to conserve number. A procedure free from these objections was employed in a second experiment. Discusses implications for the social psychology of the conservation…

Studied 54 kindergarten children to investigate whether a common cognitive capacity underlies both homonym understanding and conservation status. Results indicated conservation status is significantly related to homonym understanding, over and above the rate of the child's general vocabulary level. (Author/CI)

Two experiments tested the assertion that development of quantitative knowledge follows a U-shaped course with an early stage of conservation based on functional significance. Tested three age groups of children from three to six years. Results suggest the assertion is unwarranted and reveal that performance in younger children is best interpreted…

Some experiments concerning concrete-operational Piagetian skills are discussed in light of the interbehavioral approach in order to highlight the interacting role of antecedent stimuli and the setting of events in complex cognitive behaviors. Conservation, class inclusion, and classification are considered. Implications for a theory of…

Reported is a study of 1555 students, grades 4-12, regarding understanding the concept of controlling variables. Subjects were examined on a task involving spheres rolling down an incline and striking a target sphere; they were evaluated upon their explanations of answers, not their choice of answers. Findings indicated that the Piagetian stage of…

This study investigated the effect of different implicit definitions of equality upon children's performance on conservation tasks. In the study, traditional versions of conservation tasks are compared to modified versions in which initial equality is established through verbal counting of discontinuous quantities and measuring of continuous…

Three studies demonstrated that adults and children provide nonconservation-of-weight responses to misdirecting questions. Findings underscore the importance of linguistic pragmatics, conflict with recent claims that adults believe in the necessity of certain types of Piagetian logic, and support earlier findings suggesting that contextual cues…

Researchers studied the effect of cognitive conflict between peers in a collaborative problem-solving task in which the relationship between participants could not be described as "expert-novice" and in which development was potentially possible for all. A total of 156 subjects between 5 and 9 years of age, inclusive, participated in the…

The comparative school readiness and cognitive ability of kindergarten children from lower-income schools (N=47) and from higher-income schools (N=71) were assessed using the Preschool Inventory and a battery of eight Piagetian tasks. The overall purpose of the study was to ascertain characteristics of the children's cognitive development as a…

Examined empathy and conservation abilities of nonretarded children with autism and compared their performance to that of normally developing children. Autistic children performed surprising well, but not as well as normal children. There was a closer association between cognitive abilities and affective understanding among the autistic children…

This study investigated the relationship between both age and conservation and education and conservation. The participants were 16 middle-aged adults, 16 institutionalized adults, and 16 noninstitutionalized adults. Each individual was given three conservation of substance problems, three conservation of weight problems, and three conservation of…

This study investigated the linguistic components of Piaget's class-inclusion task. First, hierarchical classification is examined from both Piagetian and linguistic theory points of view. Then, two general characteristics of child thinking that relate to the different interpretations of the responses to classification questions are discussed: (1)…

Examines the hypothesis that errors in children's drawings of objects in anticipated states of rotation result from their inability to imagine the objects in those states. The hypothesis was tested by comparing children's performances on a drawing version and a reaction-time version of a rotating squares task. (Author/RH)