CONSERVATION OF CONTINUOUS QUANTITY INVESTIGATED AS A SCALABLE DEVELOPMENTAL CONCEPT

It was hyp'ed that, analogous to the scaling of att's, it should be possible to scale a set of items relating to a single conservation situation. 30 2nd & 3rd-grade private Sch children of mean/average intelligence were given 15 scalable problems connected with the task of conserving a continuous quantity of liquid (lemonade). Each student was given a carefully structured interview during which he was presented with the problems & encouraged to manipulate the materials, while a 2nd person recorded responses on a partially coded data sheet. The exp'al sessions were also tape-recorded. Pilot data suggested that the task would be responsive to variations in exp'al procedure. In a scalogram analysis, 'Jackson's Plus Percentage Ratio' & 'Green's Index of Consistency' indicated that the items formed a scalable set. Ability to pass the more difficult problems developed rapidly during the age period covered. In line with J. Piaget's analysis of concrete operations (THE CHILD'S CON- CEPTION OF NUMBER, New York, NY: Humanities, 1952), the results suggested a shift in orientation toward the problems occurring during the 1st & 2nd grade yrs. It is proposed that this change be accepted as a basic characteristic of intellectual growth, & res energies should now concentrate on investigating the variables accounting for developmental change. Modified Author's Summary.