The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget frequently analyzed
children’s conception of time via their ability to compare or
estimate the time taken by pairs of events. In a typical
experiment, two toy cars were shown running synchronously
on parallel tracks, ____________________.
The children were then asked to judge whether the cars had
run for the same time and to justify their judgment.
Preschoolers and young school-age children confuse temporal
and spatial dimensions: Starting times are judged by starting
points, stopping times by stopping points and durations by
distance, though each of these errors does not necessitate the
others. Hence, a child may claim that the cars started and
stopped running together (correct) and that the car which
stopped further ahead, ran for more time (incorrect).
* synchronously: 같은 시간에
