A 4-year-old child is shown a row of seven red checkers. He is asked to place a black checker immediately adjacent to each red one. Upon doing so, the child agrees that there are as many red as black checkers. The experimenter then spreads out the black checkers so that they lie in a line longer than 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) conservation of number
C) conservation of quantity
D) object constancy

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The experimenter is testing the child's understanding of conservation of number, which is the concept that the number of objects remains the same despite changes in their arrangement or appearance. The fact that the child initially agreed there were the same number of red and black checkers shows understanding of conservation of number, but it remains to be seen whether this understanding extends to situations where objects are rearranged.

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