ABSTRACT
The experiments featured in this book involve acts of prac tical intelligence and children's cognizance of them. Since the tasks were selected on the basis that they are all likely to be encountered by children in some form or other in their every day lives (unlike the more contrived tasks used in research into instrumental behavior patterns), the problem discussed in this chapter seems eminently suitable. The child is required to pull a small rectangular box by means of a string attached to it along a long plank of wood without its falling off the plank; he has to guide it with a stick as he walks alongside the plank, rather like a man walking along the towpath towing a boat. There is nothing complicated about the task, and success is fairly consistent from age seven or eight on-but it can also occur with younger children. This situa tion provides an excellent opportunity for studying the various levels of cognizance (and therefore of conceptualiza tion) that precede our stage III (at about eleven years of age),
where the subjects are fully aware of what happens, unlike younger children whose conceptualization of the situation is clearly inadequate.
