Seventy second-grade children who had succeeded on pretests involving liquid conservation observed a nonconserving model and were subsequently retested. Regression to nonconservation was obtained only among some of the children who had been submitted to maximal pressure in the presence of an adult model. (Author/JMB)

Twenty-two 9- to 12-year-old disabled children with severe mathematics disabilities and 18 normal controls with average math achievement were given six tests of conservation. Significant group differences appeared which indicated that many learning disabled children have not yet developed the concept of conversation, even in the upper elementary…

This study used a rating scale, a betting game, and a feedback phase to examine the certainty with which 60 second graders and 36 fifth graders made judgments on tasks involving various forms of conservation and transitivity. (Author/JMB)

The developmental relations between anticipatory imagery, conservation of length, and operational structures were investigated in 80 kindergarten and third-grade children by means of imagery tasks combined with a length conservation task. (MS)

Children with mild learning difficulties (MLD) who had not developed conservation of number, length, weight, and volume worked on conservation problems. MLD children who worked on the problems with another child who challenged their nonconserving responses made more progress on the problems than did MLD children who worked on the problems in…

This study identified new methodological variables which might affect the responses of second and third grade children to Piagetian conservation tasks. (GO)

Variations of the screening method developed by Piaget and Frank made it possible to systematically vary the number and type of perceptual cues in the conservation of liquid quantity task. Results of testing 192 kindergarten and first graders suggest that the development of conservation involves several levels, beginning with a concept which can…

Two hypotheses concerning children's treatment of "less" as a synonym of "more" were tested with 4- and 5-year-olds. It was hypothesized: (1) that the "less"-"more" distinction can be taught; and (2) that conservation is dependent on the capacity to distinguish "more" and "less". (Author/CS)

This study assessed the recognition by conserving and nonconserving first graders, of true and false permise and inference sentences following story presentations. Conservers performed slightly better than nonconservers on sentences other than true inference sentences, thus indicating that concrete mental operations are related to the process of…

The relationship between concrete operational thought and concept attainment was investigated in second grade students. (GO)

This paper describes a set of studies carried out as part of a larger project on the development of children's concepts of matter and its changes. In this paper, the impact of visibility and familiarity of the process of dissolving on children's concepts is analyzed. Two different studies with kindergarten and third grade students were carried…

This study examined the effects of judgment-contingent feedback and prior knowledge of 3 rules on the conservation learning of 188 kindergarten children. (Author/JMB)

It is suggested that the classical conservation justifications (reversibility, compensation, identity, identity action) are both formally and empirically inadequate justifications for the conservation deduction, particularly from a pedagogical perspective. A test for the distinction between true and empirical reversibility, that subjects know of…

Qualitative identity, qualitative identity and equivalence conservation were assessed in 60 retarded boys and girls in three groups (mental ages 5.4, 6.3, and 7.5). Half the subjects were provided a memory aid while the other half were not. (MS)