Aim The aim of this study is to investigate whether Piaget’s theory of conservation varies with a child’s age and thus, their identified cognitive developmental stage. H1: It was hypothesised, according to Piaget’s research that participants in Group 1, of the Pre-operational stage, will not have the ability to conserve, however, participants in Group 2, of the Concrete-operational stage, will. Variables The independent variable (IV) of this study was the age of the children and consequently, their cognitive development stage. The dependent variable (DV) was the response from the tasks, which concluded the child’s ability to conserve. METHOD Extraneous variable The extraneous variables (EV) in this experiment were the tells provided by the …show more content…
Rose and Blank argued that when a child gives the wrong answer, the experimenter hints or asks the question again (McLeod, 2010). In the study completed whilst, a script was utilised it is important to note that children have a desire to please those older than themselves and hence, would have altered their results based on the tells of the experimenter (Ray, 2016). Donaldson proposed another limitation which was the misunderstanding of the child, especially of a younger age (Rose & Blank, 1974). This misunderstanding of the task was evident in fact that some children aged 3 and 4 could not conserve even before the transformation. Meaning they failed to answer what was asked of them successfully. Furthermore, a study by Kail and Bisanz, suggested the inability to conserve of pre-operational children is due to the task being set for a higher stage, meaning their attention is more likely to wander and they would answer without fully attempting (Rose & Blank, 1974). Lastly, Piaget found the ages of stages were averages. Meaning some children aged 3 and 4 could be in a stage lower or higher and vice versa for older