Emergence of Concrete Operational Concepts

In Piagetian and neo-Piagetian literature, there have been conflicting results of experiments made to predict the order in which the concrete operational concepts of Class Inclusion, Transitive Inference, and Conservation emerge in a child. The present study determined the order in which these concepts emerged among 94 male and 84 female Canadian children between the ages of 5 and 7 (N = 178). Overall results indicated that Class Inclusion emerged first, followed by Transitive Inference, and then Conservation. This was the pattern for 6-year-olds, whereas 5- and 7-year-olds performed Class Inclusion and Transitive Inference at the same level of efficiency. Thus, it is apparent that Class Inclusion is generally the easiest concept to be attained, and Conservation is the most difficult. This study also indicates that the order of emergence varies and depends on the background and previous experience of the subjects.