Reasons for the Decalage between Identity Conservation and Equivalence Conservation

Abstract

Piaget's equivalence conservation tasks differ from identity conservation tasks in two ways: the former require a transitive inference for solution, and they present the child with a greater " perceptual seduction" to overcome. Two experiments investigated which factor is responsible for the identity-equivalence d&calage by comparing performance on these tasks with that on a third task, equivalence I; this task retains the transitivity requirement of Piaget's task, but one component of the extra "perceptual seduction" is absent. The results suggested that this component of "perceptual seduction" accounts for at least the greater portion of the identity-equivalence d&calage; as such the d&calage is in good accord with Piaget's theory. Implications of the results for performance in "informal conservation situations" are discussed. Various misconceptions in the literature are seen as deriving from a lack of awareness of some central ideas in Piaget's theory.