ABSTRACT
The actions needed to build something simple, as in this experiment, differ markedly from those that deal with a moving object, since the static material handled by the child in the former instance plays a purely passive role: in such a case, cognizance of his own action appears to occur so ef fortlessly in the youngest subject that if the constructions are easy, one might expect to find no progression in the de velopment of the actions, or, above all, in the cognizance of the actions. This is far from the case, as we shall see clearly in the very elementary behavior chosen for discussion in this chapter: the children are asked to use small strips of wood and bricks to build a sloping road leading from a given point to the top of a "mountain" represented by a box.
