Question

Ford and his sister, Mallory, are sitting down to eat a meatball. Their father puts one meatball on each of their plates and then proceeds to cut them up. When he sets the plates in front of Ford and Mallory, Mallory complains that Ford is getting more as he has eight pieces of meatball and she has only six. No matter how hard Mallory's father tries to explain that each started with one meatball, Mallory believes she is getting less. Mallory has not gained the ability of:

a) Conservation
b) Object Permanence
c) Egocentrism
d) Reversibility

Answer 1

Mallory has not developed the cognitive ability of conservation, which refers to understanding that changing the appearance of an object does not change its quantity.

Step-by-step explanation:

Mallory has not gained the ability of conservation. Conservation is a concept in Piaget's theory of cognitive development that refers to the understanding that changing the form or appearance of an object does not change its quantity. In the scenario described, even though Ford's meatball is cut into more pieces, it remains the same amount of meatball that Mallory has.

This cognitive ability typically develops during the concrete operational stage of cognitive development, which occurs between the ages of 7 and 11 years old. Prior to this stage, in the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years old), children like Mallory lack the ability to understand conservation and may focus on the number of pieces rather than the overall quantity.