European ‘lag’ in the development of an economic concept: A study in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Most Piagetian‐type studies of cognitive development conducted with non‐European children have found a ‘cultural lag’ in the achievement of concrete operations relating to physical or logico‐mathematical concepts. It is contended that such relative backwardness is likely to be a function of lack of familiarity, so that it could be reversed in a domain where non‐European children have the advantage of greater experience. This was tested with a sample of African children in Harare with varying experience of parental or personal involvement in small trading, whose understanding of the concept of ‘profit’ was assessed in a role‐playing situation. Results indicate that being active in trading makes for earlier grasp of the concept; moreover, the sample as a whole was shown to be significantly in advance of British children within the same age range.

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