Five-year-old Nathan pours juice from a tall glass into a shorter one. He then gives the short glass to Vince. Three- year-old Vince is upset because he now believes he has less juice than when it was in the tall glass. This aspect of preoperational thought is called
A) egocentrism.
B) precausal thinking.
C) transductive reasoning.
D) irreversibility.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario illustrates the concept of irreversibility, which is the inability to understand that an action can be done and then undone to return to the original state. Vince does not realize that the amount of juice remains the same regardless of the shape of the container.

Five-Year-Old Nathan Pours Juice from a Tall Glass into a Shorter