Child’s name _______________________
Age (years and months) _____________________________
Directions
Station I:
Place one animal on the left side of the binder. Ask, “Can
you see the ****?” Place another one on the right side.
Ask, “ Can you see the ****?” Ask, “Can they see each
other? Why?” (YES = 0 point; NO = 1 point)
How many brothers/sisters do you have? What are their
names? How many brother/sisters does _________ have?
(CORRECT = 1 point, INCORRECT = 0 point)
Does your mother have a mother? (YES = 1 point, NO = 0
point)
Was your mommy ever little? (YES = 1 point, NO = 0 points)
How old do you think I am? (14-22 = 1 point, other = 0 point)
Station II:
Abstract reversibility: Ask, “If you have one cookie and your
mom gives you two more cookies, how many will you
have?” Ask, “If you have three cookies and you give your
dad one cookie, how many will you have left?” (1 point
per correct answer)
Concrete reversibility: With cookies present (encourage
child to manipulate them), ask, “If you have two cookies,
and I give you one more, how many will you have?” Ask, “If
you have three cookies and you ate one, how many will
you have?”
Station III:
Scenario 1: Billy got mad while he was eating. He threw one
glass on the floor and broke it. John was helping his
mother clean cupboards. He accidentally tripped and broke
six glasses he was carrying. Who was more naughty - Billy
or John? Why?
________________
Scenario 2: You are on your way to a party. Before you leave
the house your mommy tells you to go directly to the
party, speaking to no one on the way. On the way, you see
a little girl/boy who has fallen off his bike and asks you to
run across the road to his home to get his parent. What
would you do? Why? (Why did mommy make this rule?)
Self-interest ____ Internalization ____ Evaluation _____
Comments/Results
Theory of mind score: ______/ 5
Young children are egocentric; that is, they have
difficulty recognizing that others have a different
perspective than them. This is true both literally
(they think everyone can see what they see) and
figuratively (My grandma is everyone’s grandma).
As they age, children develop what is known to
psychologists as a theory of mind, or the ability to
see the world from others’ perspectives. We predict
that children ages 5 and older will score a 4 or
higher.
Reversibility is the understanding that a change may
cancelled out by mentally reversing the steps and
returning to the origin. We predict that only older
children (age 6 and up) will be able to do mental
reversal and younger children will not.
Abstract reversibility score _________/ 2
Concrete reversibility score ________/ 2
Lawrence Kohlberg conjectured that children grow
through predictable stages of moral development,
starting with self-interest, then the internalization of
rules and laws, and finally, self-evaluation of rules
and laws with an emphasis on human rights.
Scenario 1: We predict that younger children will
say that John is naughtier because they have not
internalized the rules and thus base their answer to
the amount of damage done.
Scenario 2: We predict that younger children will
make their decision based on self-interest with no
evidence of internalization of rule. Older children
will demonstrate an understanding of the rule, but
will tend to follow it. Oldest children will
demonstrate evaluation of the rule when making
their decision.
Self-interest – because mommy said to, because I’ll
get in trouble, maybe he’ll help me next time
Internalization – because something bad could
happen, I could get lost, mommy would worry, “the
golden rule”
Evaluation – mommy made the rule because…but in
this case…., so I think I would …
Station IV:
Inclusion: Lay out four yellow squares and six yellow circles.
Ask:
What color are the shapes? How many squares are
there? How many circles? Which are there more of,
circles or yellow ones? (correct answer, check
“inclusion”)
Seriation: Put four of the five strips in a row from smallest to
largest. Omit 4th strip in the series. Say, “I guess I left this
one out. Can you show me where it belongs? Why does it
belong there?” (correct answer, check “seriation”)
Station V:
Show the child two equal-sized Play-doh balls. Ask: Do they
have the same amount of Play-doh?
Roll one out. Ask: Do they still have the same amount of
Play-doh? Why? (correct answer, check “mass”)
Number: Use 6 pennies and put them in two equal rows.
Ask: Do the rows have the same number?
Spread the bottom row. Ask: Do they still have the same
number? Why? (correct answer, check “number”)
Station VI:
Get two sticks and align them evenly next to each other.
Ask: Which is longer or are they both the same? Move one
five inches up. Ask: Now, which is longer or are the both the
same? (correct answer, check “length”)
Get child to agree that two cups have the same amount of
water. Pour one into a skinnier cup. Ask: Do the two new
cups have the same amount of water? Why?
(correct answer, check “volume”)
Station VII:
Symbolic logic: Put five pennies out in a row where the child
can see them. Tell him you want to play store and that he is
going to buy candies from you. Give him the pennies and
put a pile of candies in front of you and say, “Now, buy
some candies. Give me a penny and I’ll sell you an M & M.”
Repeat this until 5 candies have been “sold” and hide the
pennies in your hand below the table as the child hands
them to you. Then ask, “How many pennies have I got?”
(correct answer, check “symbolic logic”)
Station VIII:
Animism: Ask…
A. Where does the sun go at night?
B. Why do stoplights turn red?
C. Why do leaves fall off trees?
Read….
1. “If you throw a brick at a window, the window will
break. Sally threw a brick at the window. What
happened? Why?”
2. “If you throw a feather at a window, the window
will break. Lucy threw a feather at the window.
What happened? Why”
Inclusion is the ability to understand that some
categories are included in others (ie, that “men” are
included in “people”). We predict that children over
the age of 6 will correctly answer “yellow ones” and
those under 6 will answer “circles”.
Inclusion? _________
Seriation is the ability to put objects in order
according to size. We predict that children ages 8
and older will reliably succeed at this task.
Seriation? _______________
Conservation is the understanding that the shape of
an object may change even through content stays
the same. We predict that children will demonstrate
conservation of number before conservation of
mass.
Conservation of mass? __________
Conservation of number? _________
We predict that children will demonstrate
conservation of length before conservation of
volume.
Conservation of length? _________
Conservation of volume? _________
We hypothesize that symbolic thought will develop
concurrently with abstract reversibility.
Symbolic logic? ____________
Young children tend to believe that inanimate
objects have intentions like living things. We predict
that children under 6 will display this is at least one
of their three answers.
# of answers with animism: _______
Jean Piaget theorized that pre-pubescent children
are rarely capable of understanding hypothetical
situations. We predict that all of the children in our
study will state that the window will NOT break in
question 2.
Window breaks with feather? _______