I believe that it might have actually been a blend of both questions that were asked,
although worded slightly differently. "Is there the same amount of water in
the two glasses, or does one have more?" It amounts to the same thing, but
yes, wording of the question has shown to have a differential effect on the
understanding of the question between groups of 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds.
Piaget tended to use more difficult questions when testing children, and so,
quite often abilities that were otherwise present, weren't often discovered.
Mike
At 06:00 PM 3/26/02 -0800, you wrote:
Hello,
While talking about Piaget's studies on conservation in Intro Psych today I
said, "The experimenter asks the child which one has more." One student
wanted to know if the experimenter ever asked the child the question in a
different way such as, "Is there any difference in the amount?" or "Are they
the same?" I said, "I don't think so." Several student's in the class felt
that by asking the child, "Which one has more," the experimenter was setting
the child up to make a mistake. Was the question asked in different ways?
Does it matter how the question is asked? Do you have any ideas I can use
to discuss this with my students? Thank you, Laura
Laura Valvatne, Ph.D.
Shasta College
11555 Old Oregon Trail
Redding, CA 96049
(530) 225-4954
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