The Relationship of Area Conservation to Area Measurement as Affected by Sequence of Presentation of Piagetian Area Tasks to Boys and Girls in Grades One through Three

Three area conservation tasks and two area measurement tasks, all representative models of area tasks reported by Piaget, were administered in one sitting to each of 168 middle-class children, ages six years five months to nine years four months. Statistical procedures included an analysis of variance, a Pearson product-moment correlation, and multiple-regression correlation for subgroups. The findings indicated (1) that whichever group of area tasks (area conservation tasks or area measurement tasks) was presented second, that group of tasks resulted in higher scores; (2) that there was a significant correlation between area conservation scores and area measurement scores; (3) that boys and girls did not score significantly differently on area conservation tasks and area measurement tasks; and (4) that scores in area conservation tasks and area measurement tasks showed no significant difference in amount of increase from grade to grade.