Question

Ashton is shown two round balls of clay that are equal in size. He watches as the experimenter rolls one ball into a long sausage shape and asks which of the shapes has more clay. If Ashton is in Piaget's preoperational stage, he will reply ___.

Answer 1

Ashton, being in the preoperational stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory, would likely respond that the longer, sausage-shaped clay has more clay, as he has not yet developed an understanding of the conservation concept.

Step-by-step explanation:

If Ashton is in Piaget's preoperational stage, which spans from approximately 2 to 7 years of age, he will likely reply that the sausage-shaped clay has more clay because it looks longer. This is due to the fact that children in this stage have not developed an understanding of the concept of conservation — the idea that quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance or shape, assuming nothing is removed or added. In the preoperational stage, children's logic is based on their own perception and they cannot perform certain mental operations like reversibility, therefore they might perceive that a change in shape results in a change in amount.