Five-year-old Latoya watches her father place a ball in each of six bowls. She agrees that there are just as many balls as bowls. Her father then removes the balls and spreads them out in a row that extends beyond the row of bowls. Latoya says there are now more balls than bowls. According to Piaget, Latoya lacks the concept of:

Question

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Latoya's response indicates that she does not understand conservation, which is the concept that the amount of a substance remains the same even if it is rearranged or its appearance changes. In this case, she believed that the number of balls had increased simply because they were spread out in a line instead of being in bowls. Egocentrism refers to a child's inability to understand the perspective of others, object permanence is the understanding that objects exist even when they are out of sight, and false beliefs refer to the ability to understand that others can hold beliefs that are different from one's own. None of these concepts are related to the situation described.

Five-Year-Old Latoya Watches Her Father Place a Ball in Each