Samuel & Bryant

Question 0

Sample

Answer 0

. 252 boys and girls between ages of 5 and 8.5.

. Children split into four age groups

Question 1

Background & aim

Answer 1

. Replication of a study conducted by Piaget which looked at childrens ability to conserve
. Aim was to challenge Piaget’s findings by altering the method used by Piaget

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

1) standard: traditional 2 question conservation task as carried out by Piaget. Child asked on size or object before and after the shape was changed
2) one judgement: conservation task like the original but only one question asked - post transformation question. Child only asked once about the size of the object after the transformation has taken place.
3) fixed array control: child saw no transformation being made and only saw post transformation display. Purpose of this was to check that the children who answered post-transformation question correctly did so by bringing info over from pre transformation display
. Each child tested 4 times on number, volume & mass
. Recorded number of errors made by children

Question 3

Results

Answer 3

. Children found the one judgement task significantly easier, performing better on that than standard task
. Children performed better on standard task than fixed array
. Significant difference between age groups, older children did consistently better
. Children made fewer errors on the numbers task compared with mass and volume tasks

Question 4

Conclusions & implications

Answer 4

. They support Piaget’s idea that that changes in a child’s understanding take place over time
. Piaget’s method of asking the children the same question twice led the child to give the wrong answer (they thought a different answer was required) when they could actually conserve