Naughty teddy

• Aim

  To see whether the childs reaction would be different if there was no deliberate change in the row of counters
• Method

  80 children from Scotland

  40 nursery children 40 primary school children

  Shown a naughty teddy and. 2 rows of counters. 1 row of 4 red counters and 1 row of 4 white counters

  The teddy moved 1 row of counters closer together to look shorter

  Before and after the change they were asked ”are there more counters in this row or are they the same?”
• Results

  Deliberate change = 41% gave the right answer

  Accidental change = 68% gave the right answer

  Both primary school figures were higher
• Conclusion

  Shows that conservation was underestimated

  However there were age differences as the primary kids had better results
• Strength

  Reliable as other studies found children could conserve before 7
• Weakness

  Not generalised as all primary kids came from the same school and came from Scotland so had the same educational backgrounds