Patterns of Conservation Acquisition and the Relationship of Conservation to Intelligence for Children of Low Income

Abstract

The acquisition pattern of conservation tasks of the Concept Assessment Kit—Conservation (Kit) and its relationship to intelligence was determined for 105 children, ages 6 to 8 yr., from low-income backgrounds. The acquisition pattern of these children was similar to that demonstrated by the standardization sample of the Concept Assessment Kit—Conservation. The comparison of interrelationships of tasks, intelligence and age of the subjects and children of middle income indicated less differentiation in task performance between tasks for the low-income sample. Conservation performance correlated significantly and positively with age and with 1Q; for older children only, conservation performance was related within age to IQ.