Sex differences and effects of sex of examiner in early conservation ability

Abstract

Twenty-four male and 24 female kindergarten and first-grade students were assessed on two conservation-of-number tasks and a conservation-of-continuous-quantity task to determine whether sex differences exist in conservation ability development and to investigate whether sex of examiner influences conservation performance. No significant sex difference effects were obtained, and the sex of experimenter was not found to reliably influence conservation performance. Support was found for the Piagetian notion of stages in conservation development. A discussion of the reliability of the methodology employed, a compromise between Piaget’s clinical method and standardized assessments, is also presented. © 1982, The psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.