Case Studies

Review of Literature

Case Study- :

The development of conservation concepts in children from low income

family.

Nelson,Lois N

Journal of Psychology,Sep 80,Vol.106 Issue

The child sought to investigate the age when conservation of number,mass and
continuous quality develop in young children (N=144,age range 5.3 to 6.11
years) from low income families. The data reaffirmed that conservation
concepts follow an age related development pattern with conservation of mass
and continous quantity emerging , in the majority of children, after the age of 7
years. However 82% of the 6 years olds sampled understood equivalency and
reversibility applied to number conservation. In comparing the performance of
children from low income families on the same conservation tasks, significant
differences were found favouring children from middle income houses. These
differences were significant on conservation of number, mass and quantity in
the 6 years old population. At the age of five, socioeconomic factors did not
appear to exert an influence sufficient 6to differentiate the performance of two
income groups.No significant sex difference was found in the performance of
boys or girls, on any of the three tasks in either the five or six year old
population sampled.
Case Stydy-

Early Reading and Concrete operations

Temple University

Cindy L House Polk and David Goldstein

Thirty First grade children(15 Boys and 15 Girls) attending the middle class,
pre dominantly white, sub- Urban elementary school was selected for
participation. They ranged in age from 5.6-6.8 years(M=6.2). Fifteen children
who learnes to read before first grade without the benefit of formal instruction
were matched with fifteen non early readers on picture,vocabulary,sex,age, and
socio-economic status. This performnance on Peagetian Tasks of Concrete
operations were compared. Early readers had significantly higher total
Peagetian scores. Two of the subjects were significant contributions to the
overall difference:Conservation of weight,mass.and length. A follow up test of
reading achievement at the end of the first grade showed that early readers had
maintained their initial advantage and the Peagetian scores of all Ss were
significantly correlated with reading achievement.
Case Study-

Attention to Stimulus dimension in the conservation of liquid quantity.

Patricia H Miller

University of Machigan

Child development,1973,44,129-136

This study examined the relation between conservation of liquid quantity and
attention to relevant and irrelevant stimulus dimension.

Seventy Five Kindergarten students(45 Boys and Thirty girls) and twenty five
first grade students(15Boys and 10 girls) were part of the study. An attentuion
task assessed the relative silence of the height ,width and quantity of liquids.
Both Kidergarten conservers and Kidergatren non conservers found height most
salient. In addition non conservers nearly always based their beliefs in non
conservation of heights. Conservers (and ,to a lesser extent, non conservers)
could also attend to width when there was further questioning. Surprisingly,
Kindergarten conservers seldom attended to quantity.First grade conservers
found quantity most salient but could easily attend to height and width.
Case study-

Liquid conservation in orang-utans (Pongo Pygmaeus) and

Humans(Homosapiens)..

Individual difference and perceptual Strategies

Joseph Call and Philippe Rochat

Emory University

From Orangutans( 1 Juvanile,2 Sub adults and 1 adult) and ten 5-6 year old
children were tested in four liquid conservational tasks of increasing levels of
difficulty. Task difficulty depended on type of transformation(Continous vs
Discontinous quantity and the relative contrasts between the shape of the
containers. Results indicate that the orang-utans did not display conservation in
the strict sense instead they show partial conservation(intermediate reactions
according to Jean Peaget and B.Inhelder,1941)). In contrast some of thge
children provided evidence of conservation in all four tasks , showing true or
logically necessary conservation in he original sense proposed by Jean Peaget
and B.Inhelder(1941).Although oranguttans did not show conservation in the
strict sense as Jean Peaget (1955) and others, have generally agreed it should be
defined orang-utans behave as the individual and creative problem solvers
adopting different perceptual strategies depending on the task.