Conservation developmental process in early childhood: Impact of intrinsic motivation and practice effects

Abstract

Conservation is a logical thinking ability to determine whether the quantity of goods is the same even if their shape changes. Children’s acquisition of conservation is measured by a Piagetian task, which is considered a difficult cognitive task for children below the age of 6 years. However, recently, accelerated cognitive development has been found from the viewpoint of epigenetics. Its cognitive development process is not well studied at present. Based on previous studies in pedagogy and psychology, we hypothesize cognitive development will be further enhanced by a practice effect and an intrinsic motivation. Therefore, we conducted a Piagetian task (length, number, and liquid) with young children in a national kindergarten for one year as an exploratory case study. The task was including intrinsic motivation and conducted five times. The results showed that there is a possibility of acquisition with behavioral evidence at around 5–6 years old. Furthermore, this behavioral evidence could show a part of the relation with executive function. The findings contribute to the study of cognitive development in psychology. Moreover, it will contribute to child support and its research in kindergartens and homes. Although the dataset was small, the results are sufficient as a general model of Japan.