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The child's conception of the conservation task
Author(s) -
Pratt Chris
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1988.tb01090.x
Subject(s) - judgement , task (project management) , psychology , salient , transformation (genetics) , cognitive psychology , social psychology , developmental psychology , epistemology , computer science , artificial intelligence , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , management , economics , gene
Sixteen conservers and 16 non‐conservers were asked to describe a conservation of liquid task that had been administered to each of them. The children were requested to provide a general description of the task and were then asked specific questions relating to the various aspects of the task (e.g. the initial equality, the transformation, the post‐transformation judgement). Analysis of children's general descriptions revealed that both groups made reference to the salient aspects of the task and that the main difference between the groups was in the content of the answers concerning the relative quantities of liquid following the transformation. In response to the specific questions, there was a greater tendency amongst the conservers to indicate awareness of the purpose of the task (i.e. to refer to the assessment of their knowledge) and to accept that others may make a different judgement following the transformation. The results suggest that there may be an important link between performance on these tasks and the development of meta‐representational ability in children.