Dr. Reyes shows 4-year-olds two identical glasses with equal amounts of juice. She then pours one glass into a tall, narrow container while the children watch. When asked which has more juice, 78% of the children point to the tall container. When the same children are tested at age 7, only 12% make the same error.
The transition observed between ages 4 and 7 most directly reflects movement into which Piagetian stage?
- A
Formal operational
- B
Sensorimotor
- C
Postconventional
- Dcheck_circle
Concrete operational
Explanation
Concrete operational thought (roughly ages 7-11) brings reversibility and decentration, allowing children to mentally reverse the pouring and recognize that quantity is conserved. Formal operations involve abstract reasoning, sensorimotor is infancy, and postconventional is a Kohlberg moral level.