Context effect in some tasks of comparison of pictures in primary school. Two empirical illustrations

Many works have shown that a child, having to solve a problem, deals with the task according to the significations he gives to the problem-space he is facing and to the social space in which the task is inscribed. This article presents two experimentations dealing more particularly with the social space of solution of a classical task of comparison of identical pictures for which the experimenter asks for a judgement. They show how the introduction of slight contextual changes facilitates the variety of answers produced by 4–5 year-olds and 5–6 year-olds children, and consequently the production of answers centered on the relation of identity between the pictures.