A child says there is the same number of pennies in two rows spread out equally. An experimenter spreads the top row of pennies out, increasing the distance between each penny. The child then says there are more pennies in the top row. According to Piaget, this child is exhibiting:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The child's response shows a failure to conserve number, which is the ability to understand that even if the appearance of something changes, the quantity remains the same. In this case, the child initially understood that the two rows had the same number of pennies, but when the top row was spread out, the child no longer understood the conservation of the quantity.

A Child Says There Is the Same Number of Pennies