| Abstract: | Hooper's (1969a) finding that identity conservation develops prior to equivalence conservation was investigated using a more stringent within-subject design. Seventy-two kindergarten, first, and second graders were given three conservation tasks: (1) Identity, (2) Equivalence 1, in which the perceptual cues were comparable to those in Identity, and (3) Equivalence 2, the traditional Piagetian conservation task. Each task was administered under two levels of transformation. No significant differences in performance as a function of level of transformation, type of equivalence task, or sex of S were found, but first and second grade Ss performed better than kindergarten Ss. Eighty-six percent of the sample conserved in an all-or-none fashion, and 7 Ss (10%) passed equivalence while failing identity, thus contradicting the developmental priority of identity conservation. |
