Judgments of quantity and conservation of quantity: The area of a rectangle

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between perceptive judgment of quantity and conservation judgment of quantity with regard to the concept of area. Twenty children who passed an area conservation task (mean age = 8) and 20 children who failed it (mean age = 6.7) were administered an area judgment task. This task was a replication of Anderson and Cuneo's study (1978, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 107, 335–378). The conserving children generally appeared to apply an additive rule (the height and width rule) observed by Anderson and Cuneo in 5 year olds. The nonconserving children in contrast generally presented patterns suggesting centration on one of the two dimensions. The implications for Anderson's and Piaget's conceptions of conservation development are discussed.