Constructing Cognitive Operations Linguistically

Abstract

Publisher Summary The training study is one of the means to explore the mechanisms of conservation. The first efforts to train conservation interestingly enough were initiated by the Genevans themselves, in an effort to show that Piaget's equilibration theory better accounts for cognitive change than other explanations, particularly empiricist-behaviorist theories. Non-Genevan attempts to account for conservation acquisition are not confined to behaviorist or neobehaviorist theories, however. Among the alternatives are explanations based on a significant place given to the role of language. This chapter describes research, including that of the present author, designed to show how conservation can be acquired by linguistic means, despite assertions of Piaget and H. Sinclair (the principal Genevan investigator of language development) that conservation is not acquired in this fashion. There is a theoretical basis for expecting such achievements to occur, based in fact on Piaget's more recent views on the relation between language and thought.