Question

Madeline is working to teach her 4-year-old daughter, eliza, how to count. she places ten buttons in one row with very little space between the buttons, and eight buttons in another row with more space between the buttons; therefore, the second row is longer than the first. then madeline asks her daughter which row has more buttons. inevitably, eliza chooses the second row, even though she knows that ten is more than eight. what is this an example of?

Answer 1

Answer: This is an example of Centration.

Centration refers to the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation, problem or object. For example:  a child may complain that there is little ice cream left in a big bowl. The child will be satisfied if the ice cream is transferred to a little bowl, even though nothing is added, because he only considers how full the bowl appears to be.