Children 3.5 to 5.5 years of age who were unable to conserve length with Piaget's classical task did conserve length with parallel nonverbal tasks. Findings suggest that "preoperational" children apparently do not fail to conserve length because of centration, misleading perceptual information, or immature cognitive operations regarding…

To discover what aspects of number conservation tasks prevent young children from conserving, two components of number conservation tasks were investigated. A test was made of the following two hypotheses: (1) the frequency of conservation responses varies significantly with the materials used, (2) the frequency of conservation responses varies…

Three units of instruction were given to 20 four-year-old children and 34 five-year-old children. Unit I was designed to develop the children's ability to establish a length relation between curved lines; Unit II, to develop ability to conserve length; and Unit III, to develop ability to conserve length relations. Testing of the children occurred…

Results are discussed in terms of why children of the same age fail to conserve number in the standard conservation task and how complex number concepts might develop. (Author)

Children aged 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 years in three preschool programs were given a test battery consisting of classification, relations, and conservation tasks. One program (Ausubelian) was formal and two programs (Piagetian and Tradition) were informal. Posttest data for the first year of a three-year longitudinal study indicated significantly superior…

Research supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation.

The four purposes of this study were (1) to test the long-range effects of classification training (CT) on disadvantaged black children, (2) to evaluate the effects of reintroducing CT to those previously trained, (3) to compare CT at two age periods (5 and 6 years old), and (4) to compare CT with attention training (AT). Of the 69 children used…

While the purpose of this project was curriculum development, long range benefits are contingent upon a radical reorganization and upgrading of public school systems throughout Appalachia. Subjects in the pilot assessment consisted of 80 children (3 1/2 to 6 1/2 years old) and their mothers from each of Monongalia and Upshur Counties, West…

In four parts, this discussion describes characteristics of the thought of infants, preschool children, primary school students, and adolescents. Topics briefly addressed in part I, on the thought processes/capabilities of babies, concern sensorimotor thought without abstraction, the importance of physical exploration, the development of…

Papers presented at a Loyola University Symposium, part of a series on human growth and development, are published in this volume. The papers are: (1) "Some Aspects of Operations," by Jean Piaget; (2) "Operational Thought and Social Adaptation," by Peter H. Wolff; (3) "Fundamental Education," by Rene A. Spitz; (4)…