The article reports the results of a study in which twelve different conservation of
length tasks, indicative of passage from Piaget's preoperational to concrete
operational stages of cognitive development, were administered to a sample of
individuals from a remote and traditional society in Papua New Guinea. Individuals
were systematically selected to represent varying age and education levels. Results
are consistent with earlier research which has shown that conservation of length,
and, by implication, concrete operations, is fully achieved only after 7 or more
years of formal schooling.
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