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Piaget’s pendulum apparatus: A task to assess whether children can reason scientifically: Piaget presents the child with the different weights and string lengths illustrated here and shows the boy or girl how to attach them to the pendulum (and to one another). Then he says, “Your task is to discover what makes the pendulum swing more or less rapidly from side to side—is it the length of the string, the heaviness of the weight, or the height (and force) from which you release the pendulum?” and watches to see what happens.