FIGURE 15a (S805F): Pseudoconceptual reasoning within an early chain complex

In Figure 15a, after nearly 20 minutes, it would seem as if the eight-year-old participant (S805F) had solved the problem of the combination of height and size. She had described all the lag blocks (top left) as big and the bik ones (top right) as about the same size as each other and having the same name. When asked what she meant by “the same size”, she struggled to come up with the words, and when I compared the lag blocks with the bik blocks and introduced the word “flat”, she said the bik blocks were the same size and the lag blocks were “thick”. Her description for the mur and cev groups was that they were “all the same size”. These explanations suggested that the participant was being guided by the perceptually obvious (apart from the labels of the lag and bik groups all revealed) rather than by a conceptual approach to height and size, for a number of reasons. Firstly, she had moved the blocks into these groups slowly and hesitantly in short chains of two or three blocks at a time (now shape, then colour or because it is different, then size or the same names), and had then turned the lag and bik blocks over to see if she was correct. Secondly, although it was obvious that she could perceptually discern differences in the sizes of the blocks from one group to the next, she continued to use the phrase “the same size” equally for each group. Thirdly, at no stage did she say: “Oh, I see. If the lag ones are big and thick, and the bik blocks are big and flat, then maybe the cev blocks will be little and flat and the mur blocks will be little and thick”. The fluidity and changeable nature of connections made by collections and early chains carried over in her attempt to resort the blocks.

Participants were invited to resort the blocks as follows: “Now that you know what the four groups are, let’s turn the blocks over again, put them in the middle and mix them up really well, and then you can sort them into their groups again, okay?”

FIGURE 15b (S805F)

In Figure 15b is this participant’s (S805F) attempt to resort the blocks. What is immediately obvious is that there are only three groups – and this after all of the blocks had previously been turned over and were in four groups. This participant’s description for these resorted groups was that they were all the same size: this attempt at resorting the blocks was a clear example of the fluidity and changeable nature of the connections made by collections leading to early chains, as well as of a pseudoconceptual disregard for obvious inconsistencies in evidence throughout her session. Furthermore, for her, the names of the blocks simply meant that they had to be put together, and not because they had a meaning which referred to some particular quality: this quality of the labels seemed to be no more important than any other characteristic – such as colour or shape.