Conservation accidents

Eighty children aged between 4 years 2 months and 6 years 3 months were tested on length and number conservation, both when the transformation occured because of a direct action by the experimenter and when it happened ‘accidentally’ as the by-product of an activity directed towards a different goal. Fifty children conserved when the transformation was ‘accidental’, whereas only 13 were successful when it was intentional. These results are interpreted as evidence that characteristics of the experimenter's behaviour, in particular his actions towards the task materials, can influence children's interpretation of utterances by suggesting the experimenter is thinking about a different attribute from that specified linguistically. It is suggested that traditional procedures may underestimate children's cognitive abilities.