Paradosso e conflitto socio-cognitivo nell'acquisizione del concetto di conservazione della distanza

Studied the effects of sociocognitive conflict on the distance conservation ability of preschool children. Human subjects: 54 male and female Italian preschool children (mean age 5 yrs 6 mo). Ss were asked to compare the distance a toy car would travel on a straight line or a line that made several right angle turns under a control condition (no conflict–suggestion from an adult), a plausible condition (adult gave correct answer), and a paradoxical condition (adult gave a wrong answer based on an opposite perceptual perspective). The results were evaluated according to the number of correct responses by the Ss and each S's sex. Performance improvement associated with task repetition was also assessed. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and other statistical tests were used