CONSERVATION ACQUISITION - A PROBLEM OF LEARNING TO ATTEND TO RELEVANT ATTRIBUTES

Five-year-old children who failed on conservation tests of length, number, mass, and liquid amount were given discrimination learning set (LS) training on length and number tasks. Posttests of conservation showed near perfect specific (length and number), and approximately 60% nonspecific (mass and liquid amount) transfer of training. This effect was durable as measured 2-3 weeks later. Analyses of LS learning results and the effects of other training conditions support the hypothesis that young children fail to conserve because of inattention to relevant quantitative relationships and attention to irrelevant features in classical conservation tests. © 1969.