Conservation of Liquid and Solid Quantity by the Chimpanzee
Abstract
Sarah, an adult "language"-trained chimpanzee, made accurate same-different judgments on quantities of liquid and solid matter and conserved both types of quantity despite a transformation in an irrelevant property (shape). Control tests showed that she judged on the basis of inference rather than perceptual evaluation of the quantities. She failed to make accurate same-different judgments on the basis of number, and she was not tested for conservation of this type of quantity.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- December 1978
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.202.4371.991
- Bibcode:
- 1978Sci...202..991W