Samuel and Bryant 1984.

Samuel and Bryant 1984.

1. AIM

   • To test the theory that asking the same question twice is the reason why children fail to conserve in Piagets Standard conservation task

2. RESEARCH METHOD

   • Lab experiment
     • Independent measures design

3. PARTICIPANTS

   • Used children aged 5,6,7,8 to test a wider age range than Piaget
     • In total 252 boys and girls from Devon
       • Divided into four groups, 63 in each, based on their age
         • each group of 63 were further divided into groups of three with 21 in each condition

4. CONDITIONS

   • STANDARD CONDITION: Children were given two standard two-question conservation task
     • ONE JUDGEMENT CONDITION: Children were only asked one question post-transformation
       • FIXED ARRARY CONDITION: children were shown the pre and post transformations together. Asked whether the two same items had the same volume/number or mass. CONTROL CONDITION
   • Each child took part in 12 trails, four trails for each conservation (volume, number or mass)

5. RESULTS

   • MEAN NUMBER OF ERRORS AGE 5. Eight in the standard condition. Seven in the one question condition. Nine in the fixed array condition
   • MEAN NUMBER OF ERRORS AGE 6: six in the standard condition........four in the one question condition.........nine in the fixed array condition.
   • MEAN NUMBER OF ERRORS AGE 7: Three in the standard condition. Three in the one question condition. Five in the fixed array
   • MEAN NUMBER OF ERRORS AGE 8: Two in standard condition....One in one-question condition....Three in the fixed array

6. CONCLUSION

   • Asking the same question twice may cause some children to fail to conserve, BUT, the results also provide support Piagets theory. because as the age of the children increased the children made fewer errors of conservation, regardless of which condition they were tested in.