A Note on Piaget's experiment concerning the Child's Conception of "Speed"

Abstract

Piaget, J. made various kind of experiments about the child's conception of "Speed". This is a study concerning child's conception of "Speed" in the movement of two object under the same motion cycle, and tries to assess the outcomes of Piaget's experiment, with some modification in the experimental device and questionary terms. The findings of this experiment are as follows; (1) In the experiment using the device of two stell balls fall on the oblique plane, the way of the child's conception of "Speed" is the same as the result of Piaget's. (2) With the advance of grades in the elementary school, the ability of conception about "Speed" by order relationship decreases. But there are 40% of children in the fifth grades who recognize "Speed" based on an intuition of order. (3) When I made the experiment of the first grades’ recognition of "Speed" in the concentric circle movement, a high level of correct answers could be obtained, if we ask the child using the Japanese word "Isogu (hurry)" instead of the word "Hayasa (speed)". (4) As for the judgement of "Hurry", they don't tend to recognize "Speed" on the basis of order relationship.