| The purpose of this research was to analyze factors that influence children's use of counting to solve conservation problems. Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, two groups of nonconservers, one who demonstrated the ability to establish one-to-one correspondences to determine numerical equivalence and one who did not, were presented with one of two sets of four trials, one that consisted of a small and the other a larger set size. In Study 2, two groups of conservers, one who provided more mature explanations for conservation judgments and one who provided less mature explanations, were presented with one of two sets of six number conservation trials, one that consisted of a small and the other a larger set size. In both studies, following standard conservation assessment trials, children were asked to count the sets and then make another conservation judgment. For nonconservers, counting produced evidence of conservation. For conservers, counting produced evidence of apparent nonconservation, achieved by a surreptitious addition or subtraction of an item during the spatial transformation.;Results indicated that nonconservers who understood the numerical significance of one-to-one correspondence were able to make use of counting information to solve conservation problems involving larger set sizes to a greater extent than those who did not understand the numerical significance of one-to-one correspondence relations. In addition, the results revealed that nonconservers who did not demonstrate the ability to produce one-to-one correspondence used counting information to form conservation judgments to a greater extent on small than on large number conservation trials. The two groups of conservers did not differ in their ability to recognize and/or explain the evidence of apparent nonconservation. However, conservers who gave less mature justifications were more able to recognize and/or explain the apparent nonconservation on small than on larger number conservation trials.;The results are discussed with respect to factors that constrain the role of empirical operations, such as counting, in the child's formation of logical concepts, such as conservation. The implications for the present findings for models of counting/number conservation relations are also discussed. |
