Concepts of space in the mentally subnormal studiesed by Piaget's method.

Abstract

A study has been made of the concepts of space of ninety‐four subnormal subjects whose concepts of number were previously investigated. Three of the experiments devised by Piaget and Inhelder to study concepts of space were repeated. The types of response and sequences reported by them in respect of normal children were found in a subnormal group, though there was little consistency as regards stages. When the results for the three problems were classified into stages as defined by Piaget and Inhelder, the subnormal subjects tended to have lower classifications for drawing than for the other two spatial concept problems; for one of the latter they tended to achieve higher stages than for number concept problems. Closer agreement was found when intermediate classifications were ignored, and only the main stages defined by Piaget as concrete operational and intuitive were considered.