Different Types of Conservation and Nonconservation and Their Relation to Age, Sex, IQ, MA, and Vocabulary

Conservation of substance, weight, continuous and discontinuous quantity, number, area, distance, length, 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional space and their relation to age, sex, IQ, MA, and vocabulary were assessed in normal and emotionally disturbed children in first and second grades. Although the emotionally disturbed children were 2 years older, their level of conservation was not higher than that of the normal children. In contrast, normal older subjects performed significantly better than normal younger subjects, even though their age digerence was only 1 year. Boys obtained consistently higher conservation scores than girls. Conservation was positively correlated with IQ, MA, and verbal ability. An analysis, of nonconservation responses suggested an interaction effect between the frequency and type of nonconservation, on 1 hand, and the particular task and configuration of the manipulated object, on the other. The results both support Piaget's theory of age-dependent cognitive development for normal subjects and suggest significant individual differences within a given age group