Functional magnetic resonance imaging study of Piaget’s conservation-of-number task in preschool and school-age children: A neo-Piagetian approach

Jean Piaget’s theory is a central reference point in the study of logico-mathematical development in children. One of the most famous Piagetian tasks is number conservation. Failures and successes in this task reveal two fundamental stages in children’s thinking and judgment, shifting at approximately 7 years of age from visuospatial intuition to number conservation. In the current study, preschool children (nonconservers, 5–6 years of age) and school-age children (conservers, 9–10 years of age) were presented with Piaget’s conservation-of-number task and monitored by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The cognitive change allowing children to access conservation was shown to be related to the neural contribution of a bilateral parietofrontal network involved in numerical and executive functions. These fMRI results highlight how the behavioral and cognitive stages Piaget formulated during the 20th century manifest in the brain with age.

► The present work used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the number conservation task in children, one of the most famous Piagetian tasks.
► Failures and successes in this task reveal two fundamental stages in children’s thinking and judgment.
► At approximately 7 years of age, children shift from visuospatial intuition to number conservation.
► This cognitive change was shown to be related to a parietofrontal network involved in numerical and executive functions.
► This result highlights how the stages Piaget formulated in the twentieth century manifest in the brain with age.