Relationship Between Performance on a Piagetian Liquid Conservation Task and Reading Achievement in Seven Year Old Children

The relationship of a Piagetian measure of liquid conservation in children with reading ability was obtained to determine the predictive ability of such a task. A six-step conservation-of-fluid task, yielding a score of 0-6, was individually administered to 52 middle-class white children of CA 73-87 months. Reading was assessed 8 weeks later with the Stanford Achievement Test, Reading. A non-significant r of .13 was obtained. Mean reading scores of 3 groups of subjects divided by Piagetian stage of nonconservation-conservation did not significantly differ. Results confirmed most previous studies in finding that Piagetian task scores are not predictive of early academic achievement.