page_title: Conservation (psychology)
section_title: Liquid
hierarchical_section_title: Conservation (psychology) / Tasks / Liquid
caption_attribution_description: English: Demonstrating conservation of liquid
context_page_description: Conservation refers to a logical thinking ability that allows a person to determine that a certain quantity will remain the same despite adjustment of the container, shape, or apparent size, according to the psychologist Jean Piaget. His theory posits that this ability is not present in children during the preoperational stage of their development at ages 2–7 but develops in the concrete operational stage from ages 7–11.
context_section_description: Start with two glasses of liquid that are exactly the same shape and contain the same amount of liquid. Ask the child if they are the same, or if one has more or less liquid in it. If the child replies that they are the same, the liquid from one of the short glasses is then poured into a taller, skinnier glass. A child who cannot conserve will assume the taller glass has more liquid than the shorter glass. Piaget’s other famous task to test for the conservation of liquid involves showing a child two beakers, A1 and A2, which are identical and which, the child agrees, contain the same amount of colored liquid. Then liquid from Beaker A1 is poured into a taller, thinner glass (B1) and the liquid in A2 is poured into a glass (B2) identical to B1. The child is then asked whether there is still the same amount of liquid in each of the new glasses (B1 and B2) as was in Beakers A1 and A2. A child who cannot conserve would answer "no, there is more in the tall thin glasses," while a child who can conserve would answer "yes, there is still the same amount." Piaget also replicated this task with beads in glasses, and found again that some children were able to conserve while others were not.
caption: Two glasses with an equal amount of liquid
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