Children from ages two to seven are in what psychologists term the preoperational stage; or, the stage in Jean Piaget's theory characterized by the ability to construe mental representations of experience, but not yet perform operations on them. I was able to perform the Piaget conversation task on my little brother Thomas, who is six years of age. I showed him two glasses of equal amounts of water and proceeded to pour the contents of one glass into a tall, skinnier glass and asked him which one contained more water. He hesitated for a moment, but then told me that they were both equal. When I questioned him why, he said that the water in the tall glass was the same water that had been in the now empty glass,which, was the same size as the other glass, therefore, the amounts of water had to be the same. Of course, it took him a while to explain all this to me in a way in which both he and I could understand.
I am unsure of the age at which children in the preoperational stage should be able to correctly complete this task, but from what I have observed, I can assume that around ages six and seven, they should be able to do so. Children any younger than that, I feel, wouldn't have the sufficient mind to grasp such a complex task.
Equal or not?
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You bring up a very interesting point. Where's that line? I would, for one, guess that the line is without a doubt flexible for each child, but where is the general area. It is very interesting watching children grow up and watching their minds change. Its definitely a lot more noticeable than a college students change in thinking. I think it is pretty awesome that you were able to perform that test on your brother, but I'm wondering if there are other tests that he wouldn't be able to explain. Is there another similar test that would prove he's in a different stage, or not fully in the current stage. I don't know of any tests out there, but it might be something to think about.
This is making me want to test my little nephews and nieces. The Piaget task is an interesting one. Using the sizes of the two different cups to test the minds of the kids. The kids being able to explain it after a bit too is awesome. This shows that they are starting to think outside the box.
This is a very good analysis. I also like how you actually performed the experiment versus talking about past performances done by other people. I think you are right in saying children understand conservation at around 6-7 years of age. The preoperational stage of development is a very interesting, and probably my favorite stage of Piaget's Stages of Development.
I thought it was really interesting that you experimented with your little brother. I might actually try this experiment on my little cousins! I used to babysit all the time and one of my favorite parts of doing so was watching the children start to accommodate from assimilating. I also found Piaget's Three Mountain task intriguing and I think that it would have been fun and interesting to see the results if you tried it on your little brother also.
That is cool that you actually did this test with your own brother. I find it so amazing how such little kids can actually understand such complex task. That is a pretty good assumption about how old the average kid to complete this task may be. But you also have to keep in mind that many kids seem to be better in one aspect but tend to suffer in another. Many kids don't just become equal towards different tasks throughout development. Would this skew the data?