An investigation of the role of an atomistic view of material substance in the development of conservation of continuous quantity in young children. Piagetian tasks using blocks, coarse salt and water were presented to a total of 180 kindergarten, first, and second grade children. Results indicate that tasks using blocks were the easiest. (ED)

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)

Tests of intelligence, music audiation, auditory conservation, and visual conservation were administered to two first-grade classes. Data revealed that auditory conservation isn't significantly related to visual conservation but is significantly related to music aptitude, to IQ, and to the interaction of music aptitude and IQ. Instructional…

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

This activity explains fisheries resource management to seven-year olds. First-grade students learn concepts such as offspring viability, life expectancy, and distribution of species, which help to determine when, where, and how people fish and the importance of fishing responsibly. Lists materials, procedures, and extensions. (SJR)

This study investigated the relationships among mathematics achievement scores of first graders, the order of presentation of difficult topics, the use of readiness activities, and scores on a conservation test. The study was developed and conducted in four phases. Phase 1 included analysis of 70 randomly selected first-graders' work on the…

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…

The amount of social pretend play in free-play sessions of small groups of five to seven year olds, and the symbolic features of this play, were noted. Conservation, verbal symbol substitution, and role-playing skills, were assessed as measures of cognitive symbolic skill. Results provide no evidence that these social class differences reflect…

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

Kindergartners who received learning-set instruction on unidimensional classification, unidimensional seriation, and number conservation were retested at the end of first grade. Followup tests showed that the cognitive advantage and improved academic achievement gained from that teaching method was generally present 15 months later. However, a…

A study was conducted to investigate the respective contributions of personal and social factors (initial competence and imitation of modeled responses) in children's observational learning of conservation. Subjects included 180 first-grade nonconservers from six schools attended by French-speaking middle class pupils. All subjects failed…

Documents cognitive processes mediating the observational learning of conservation. Findings suggest the presence of demand characteristics for high undifferentiated ratings under a public format of certainty appraisal. This contamination prevents valid monitoring of the course of cognitive rule processing. (RH)

A longitudinal investigation was conducted on the development of conservation skills in learning disabled (LD) children. During each of 3 years, six measures of conservation from the Concept Assessment Kit (space, number, substance, weight, continuous quantity, and discontinuous quantity) were administered to 31 newly identified LD students and 33…