| Abstract: | In order to investigate the nature of the processes that promote the observational learning of conservation, nonconservers were allowed or not visual access to the conservation stimuli while an adult model verbalized the conservation rule. In addition, after each demonstration the subjects were submitted to one of four conditions. The first three conditions involved a short pause during which the observers respectively kept seeing the stimuli, had to visualize them mentally, and had to visualize mentally some irrelevant stimuli; no interruption occurred in the fourth condition. As predicted, the withdrawal of visual information at the time of rule exemplification was accompanied with lower learning scores. However, equivalent acquisition was found with respect to each of the conditions in which the subjects were invited to examine specific stimuli after rule modeling. Altogether these data were discussed in terms of the greater and lesser extent to which the conditions permitted the children, during the observational training, to practice covertly the modeled solution. |
