The thesis is advanced that transformations which lead to nonconservation (as opposed to those that do not) are related connotatively to the concept to be conserved. Evidence was found in significant positive correlations between degree of non-conservation of weight under various transformations and the magnitude of the semantic differential factor loadings of the adjectives which describe the various transformations on the potency factor on which the weight adjectives, heavy and light, are also loaded.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ervin-TrippS. H.FosterG.The development of meaning in children's descriptive terms. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1960, 61, 271–275.
2.
MironM. S.OsgoodC. E.Language behavior: the multivariate structure and qualification. In CattellR. B. (Ed.), Handbook of multivariate experimental design. Chicago: Rand-McNally, 1966. Pp. 790–819.
3.
MurrayF. B.Conservation in self and object. Psychological Reports, 1969, 25, 941–942.
4.
MurrayF. B.Stimulus mode and the conservation of weight and number. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1970, 61, 287–291.
5.
MurrayF. B.JohnsonP.Reversibility in nonconservation of weight. Psychonomic Science, 1969, 16, 285–287.
6.
NummedalS. J.MurrayF. B.Semantic factors in conservation of weight. Psychonomic Science, 1969, 16, 323–324.
7.
OsgoodC. E.SuciG. J.TannenbaumP. H.Measurement of meaning. Urbana: Univer. of Illinois Press, 1957.
8.
SaltzE.HamiltonH.Concept conservation under positively and negatively evaluated transformations. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1968, 6, 44–51.