Study

• Background

  Conservation is one of the skills children acquire as part of their cognitive development. This is the understanding that even if the appearance of an object changes, its physical properties still remain the same. This occurs during the concrete operational stage. Conservation of numbers is the first to develop followed by mass and volume.
• Aim

  To demonstrate that children in the concrete operational stage are more likely to be able to conserve than children in the pre-operational stage.
• Hypothesis

  Children in the concrete operational stage will be able to conserve, whereas children in the pre-operational stage will not.
• Design


  Natural experiment as the IV was naturally occurring (the age of the children). The DV was the ability to conserve numbers. This was a cross-sectional study because different children of different ages were tested. This was an independent measures design.
• Samples

  the size of the sample was not known, it was relatively small sample of Swiss school children from Geneva. The sample included his own three children.
• Procedure

  Children were shown, one at a time, 2 identical parallel rows of counters, counters facing each other one to one so that both rows equally matched, the researcher asked the child ‘is there the same number of counters in each row’ then moved the counters on one row- stretching them out and changing the layout in front of the child, so that they could see the transformation process. The child was asked again which row had more counters.
• 1. 4 year olds (pre-operational stage) typically stated that there were more in the longer row that had been transformed
• A few children aged 5-6 (towards the end of the pre-operational stage) were able to state that the number of counters remained the same
• Many children in the concrete operation stage (7-11 years) were able to recognise that both rows still contained the same number of counters, despite the transformation of one of the rows
• Many children in the concrete operation stage (7-11 years) were able to correctly explain why they had made this judgment
• Pre-operational stage

  1. 4 year olds typically stated that there were more in the longer row that had been transformed
• End of pre-operational stage

  A few children aged 5-6 were able to state that the number of counters remained the same
• Concrete operation stage

  Many children aged 7-11 were able to recognise that both rows still contained the same number of counters, despite the transformation of one of the rows
• Children in the concrete operation stage (7-11 years)

  Able to correctly explain why they had made this judgment
• Conclusions

  Piaget supported his hypothesis as he found that children in the concrete operational stage were able to recognise that both rows still contained the same number of counters, despite the transformation of one of the rows.