LACK OF FORMAL SCHOOLING AND THE ACQUISITION OF CONSERVATION

Abstract

The performances of Negro 6and 9-year-old children from Prince Edward County, Virginia, a community which had been without public schools for 4 years, on a series of Piagetian conservation tasks, were compared with those of Negro children from a community which had had regular schooling. 3 techniques of questioning the children were experimentally varied. Findings revealed generally no significant diferences attributable to effects of nonschooling, except within one questioning condition. Differences between verbal and nonverbal tasks were found to be highly significant. Implications for the Piagetian theory of cognitive development and for the methodology of conservation experiments are discussed.