This paper is a progress report on a series of experiments which have sought to probe the cognitive development of mildly mentally retarded and normal children, using conservation training as the principal research tool. Three- and 4-year-old children were given Verbal Rule instruction in a 2 x 2 x 2 design intended to probe the importance of…

In a program to facilitate the emergence of number conservation in preschool children, 45 middle class children and 64 Head Start and Title I children were trained to deal with perceptual confusions so that they could utilize this understanding to disregard irrelevant changes, such as spatial rearrangement, and thereby become aware of conservation…

The major question this study attempted to answer was, "Can conservation of number, area, weight, mass, and volume to be induced and retained by 3- and 4-year-old children by structured instruction with a multivariate approach? Three nursery schools in Iowa City supplied subjects for this study. The Institute of Child Behavior and Development…

An analysis of the quantitative processes underlying conservation of quantity is presented. Models of three quantitative operators--subitizing, counting, and estimation--are derived from adult performance in quantification tasks, and some features of the operators are described. The emergence of conservation is described in terms of the…

Bogartz questions the Anderson and Cuneo study (p335-78 of this issue) on statistical-methodological grounds and on their positions concerning the concepts of conservation, centration, and compensation. (For Anderson and Cuneo's rejoinder to Bogartz, see p388-92 of this journal issue.) (SJL)

Explored relations between measuring procedures and reasoning about amount on the part of 36 children of 3-8 years in 2 studies. Transformation on a relevant measurement procedure predicted difficulty of transformation for a domain. (RJC)

This paper is mainly devoted to reviewing past research on music development. Some recommendations for future research on music development and for improving music education for preschool children are also included. The developmental theories of Jean Piaget are discussed in detail, with special attention being given to concepts important to…

PIAGET HAS PROPOSED THAT THE CONCEPT OF NUMBER IS PREDICATED ON THE CONCEPT OF CONSERVATION OF SUBSTANCE--THAT IS, THE CONCEPT THAT THE AMOUNT OR NUMBER REMAINS THE SAME DESPITE SPATIAL REARRANGEMENTS. BECAUSE OF THE CURRENT EMPHASIS ON REVISION OF MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM AND OF THE APPARENT VALUE OF NUMBER TRAINING TO PRESCHOOL DISADVANTAGED…

Discussed is research which shows, in contrast to the dominant impression given by Piaget's work, that before the onset of schooling the young child possesses several kinds of fundamental "intuitions" concerning numbers. (Author/TG)

Three experiments explored the developmental relationship between counting and number conservation in children from three to six years old. Results indicated that there was a close relationship between the two; that only the oldest children gave evidence of conserving; and that, in general, there is evidence of protracted development in young…

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…

This report reviews some ostensibly conflicting empirical findings which have been reported in conjunction with Elkind's (1967) conjecture that Piaget's conservation problems tap two distinct concepts. The discrepant findings which report on the order of emergence of identity conservation and equivalence conservation are discussed. An analysis of…

This study investigated the relationships between symbolic play, reading readiness, drawing, Piaget's principle of conservation, and age, in 41 preschool children. Subjects were participants in a pre-first-grade summer program; they had had kindergarten experience but no formal reading instruction, and they ranged in age from five years, six…

This study investigated the ability of preschool children in Singapore to conserve number, length, and quantity. Participants were more than 200 children of 3 to 6 years who attended one of six different types of preschool centers. Findings indicated that more than half of the 5.5-year-old children were able to conserve number, but less than 15…

The present study was designed to determine whether conservation of number, weight, volume, area, and mass could be learned and retained by disadvantaged preschool children when taught by an inexperienced classroom teacher. An instructional sequence of 10-minute lessons was presented on alternate days over a 3 1/2 week period by preservice…