Interference of time-related and unrelated cues with duration comparisons of young children: analysis of Piaget's formulation of the relation of time and speed.

The analysis of the relation of time and speed led Piaget to conclude that the time-speed confusion characterizing the intuitive stage undergoes development. He claimed that in the first stage, a child comparing the duration of two moving bodies attributes longer duration to the faster body, whereas in the second stage, he attributes longer duration to the slower body. It is proposed here that time-speed confusion is mediated simply by "more is more," and hence, as long as the child continues to confuse time with speed, he believes "faster" implies longer duration. Moreover, this confusion should not differ either in form or extent from the confusion of time and many other arbitrary quantitative dimensions (e.g., intensity of light). 72 children, 4-7 years old, compared duration differing either on speed or on intensity of light. As predicted, the tasks did not differ on performance level or on error types. Moreover, the performance on both tasks was consistent with the predictions of a facet model pertaining to analysis of time problems. Confusion dissipated with age and was similar for boys and girls.