A 4-year-old child is shown a row of seven red checkers. He is asked to place a black checker immediately above each red one. By doing so, the child agrees that there are as many red as black checkers. The experimenter then spreads out the black checkers so that the line they form is longer than the one formed by the red checkers. The experimenter asks whether there are more red checkers or more black checkers in order to determine whether the child understands:
A)object permanence.
B)reversibility.
C)conservation.
D)abstract thinking.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The experiment is testing the child's understanding of conservation, which is the idea that the quantity of a substance remains the same even when its appearance changes. The fact that the child agrees that there are as many red as black checkers shows an understanding of conservation, but if the child then incorrectly identifies the longer line of black checkers as having more than the red checkers, it would indicate a lack of understanding of conservation. This experiment does not test object permanence, reversibility, or abstract thinking.

A 4-Year-Old Child Is Shown a Row of Seven Red