Videotapes of five- to eight-year-old children trying to solve the balance beam problem were inspected. When weight and distance were in conflict in the balance beam problem, which of the following was observed?
A)The preoperational children seemed to treat each side of the fulcrum as two separate piles of weights
B)The five-year-olds seemed to encode information both about weight on either side of the fulcrum, and the distance between each pile of weights and the fulcrum
C)The eight-year-olds seemed to treat each side of the fulcrum as two separate piles of weights
D)The younger and older children encoded the balance beam array in the same way

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Preoperational children, typically ranging from ages 2 to 7, tend to focus on one aspect of a problem at a time. In the balance beam problem, they might focus on the weight without considering the distance from the fulcrum, leading them to treat each side as separate entities rather than understanding the interplay between weight and distance.

Videotapes of Five- to Eight-Year-Old Children Trying to Solve the Balance