It was concluded that movie presentation did not destroy the essence of the conservation task and that it gave promise of the development of an effective means of standardizing Piagetian testing when used in conjunction with a series of follow-up questions. (Authors)

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)

The purpose of this study was to explore among first grade children the relationship between achievement in mathematics and the understanding of the principles of conservation, seriation, and categorization as these are defined by Jean Piaget. Research instruments included those designed by Piaget and the Greater Cleveland Mathematics Tests.…

Results confirm the hypothesis that identity and equivalence conservation require different mental processes. (Authors/MB)

Experimenter's sex appears to be an important factor in conservation assessment at the first-grade level. (RL)

Four experiments are described in which observational learning was found on multidimensional conservation tasks. (MB)

Results indicate that identity conservation generally does not precede equivalence conservation; instead the two conservations tend to co-occur. (Authors)

Describes a study, involving 120 first grade children, which supports the hypothesis that the rate of attainment of conservation skills is significantly enhanced by experiences made possible by the first grade program of SCIS. Describes the six conservation tasks used for pre-tests and post-tests: number, liquid amount, solid amount, length,…

Lower-class children required significantly more training task repetitions to learn a conservation task than did middle-class children. (Authors)

This study of 145 middle class first grade students investigated whether a relationship exists between early acquisition of Piagetian conservation tasks and gifted performance on a mental abilities test. Students were evaluated individually on tasks involving the conservation of number, of liquid quantity, and of mass. A moderate correlation was…

Analyses revealed consistent support for the hypothesis that number conservation is developmentally prior to liquid quantity conservation. (Authors)

Kindergarten and third grade children originally assessed in 1973 were retested one year later on a series of conservation and transitive inference tasks (length and weight content areas). An additional sample of matched cohort/grade subjects was assessed in the second year only to permit evaluation of repeat measurement biases for the…

Appraises the respective contribution of initial competence and of imitation of modeled response in the observational learning of conservation among first grade children. (HOD)

Over 1000 out of 4000 preschoolers observed conserved identity of matter over time and roughly two-thirds of the 1000 also conserved equivalence. Follow-up showed no correlation between kindergarten conservation abilities and grade one math performance but significant correlations between equivalence conservation by end of kindergarten and grade…