Which ability involves mentally retaining an object despite its change in form, a skill lacking in preoperational children?

The concept being described is conservation, which refers to the understanding that certain properties of an object, such as volume, mass, or number, remain consistent even when its shape or form changes. This cognitive skill is typically not developed until later in childhood, according to Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development. Preoperational children, generally ages 2 to 7, tend to focus on the most visible aspects of an object and may struggle to recognize that despite a transformation, the object's fundamental qualities remain unchanged.

For instance, if a child sees a ball of clay flattened into a pancake shape, they may think there is less clay simply because it looks different, illustrating their lack of conservation. Developing this skill is crucial for more advanced cognitive functioning, as it allows children to engage in more complex reasoning and problem-solving.

The other options refer to different cognitive functions. Transformation refers to the ability to understand how an object can change from one state to another, centration is the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation while neglecting others, and reversibility is the understanding that objects can return to their original state after a change. These concepts are essential in understanding various cognitive processes but do not specifically encapsulate the idea of retaining an object's properties despite changes