Sam and his siblings are modeling clay. He is the only child at the table who realizes that rolling a ball of clay into a thin line does not alter the amount of clay, and has been accused several times by his younger siblings of stealing their clay. Unlike the other children, Sam is in the __________ stage of development.
A) preoperational
B) sensorimotor
C) concrete operations
D) linear

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Sam's understanding that rolling a ball of clay into a line does not change the amount of clay demonstrates conservation, which is a key concept in the concrete operations stage of cognitive development. In the preoperational stage, children are unable to understand conservation and may be easily fooled by changes in appearance, such as rolling a ball into a thin line. The sensorimotor stage occurs in infancy and focuses on learning through sensory experiences and motor actions. "Linear" is not a recognized stage of developmental psychology.

Sam and His Siblings Are Modeling Clay