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A Test of Conservation for Continuous and Discontinuous Quantity in the Very Young Child

The development of mathematical concepts in children has been studied by many researchers. Much of this research has focused on the concept of conservation which was introduced by Piaget. It has generally been assumed that children under the age of five years are not capable of such conservation. Some recent evidence suggests that children Wlder this age do conserve on particular tasks. In this study one hundred children from age two years four months to three years seven months were tested for conservation of discontinuous and continuous quantity. Although some evidence of conservation in this age range was obtained, no consistent pattern emerged. An edible dough was used, so that both verbal (noneating) and nonverbal (eating) responses were recorded for children of these ages. A three-factor analysis of variance showed that there were no significant effects from age, eating/noneating, or continuous/discontinuous variables. However, there was a significant but puzzling interaction between the ccnt.inuous/discontinuous and eating/noneating factors.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-3367
Date23 February 1976
CreatorsKaye, Nancy Patrick
PublisherPDXScholar
Source SetsPortland State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceDissertations and Theses

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