Piagetian Tasks Clarified: The Use of Metal Cylinders

Abstract

T WO RECENT ARTICLES in the BSCS Newsletter (Steele 1972, 1973) invited teachers to administer a conservation-of-liquid-quantity task to their students. According to the author, successful completion of the task is an indication that the student has developed into the late concrete or early formal operational period of thought, in terms of Jean Piaget's model of cognitive development, and is likely to be able to think abstractly. In the second of these articles the author describes the task as one indicator that a person is approaching or has reached the stage of abstract logical thinking (formal operations is Piaget's term) (Steele 1973). Although many of the author's remarks are valid, he has misinterpreted the function of the liquidquantity task as a test of formal operations-a mistake that has apparently engendered a good deal of confusion among the teachers who have tried it. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to remove this confusion by clarifying the nature of the conservation tasks and to provide a valid alternative test for the presence of formal operational thought.