4-year-old Nick is shown two drinking glasses of different shapes. One is short and wide, the other tall and thin. A teacher fills both glasses with the same amount of water, and asks Nick if the glasses have the same amount of water
Nick states the tall glass has more. Explain why Nick responds this way referring to Piaget's theory of cognitive development.
What will be an ideal response?
A good answer would include the following key points:
- Nick is fooled by appearance due to the concept of centration. He focuses only on a limited aspect of the stimulus (the length of the glasses) and does not take into account the width.
- This leads to an error in judgment, and he is unable to understand the concept of conservation.
- Conservation is the knowledge that quantity is unrelated to the arrangement and physical appearance of objects.
- Nick also has difficulty following the sequence of transformations that accompany the appearance of a situation.
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