In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, what is a common feature of preoperational thinking?

In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, preoperational thinking, which typically occurs between the ages of 2 and 7, is characterized by features such as animism and magical thinking. During this stage, children often attribute life and consciousness to inanimate objects, believing that plants and toys can have feelings and intentions. This reflects their tendency to interpret the world through a subjective lens, where imagination plays a significant role in how they make sense of their environment.

Magical thinking is also a hallmark of this stage, where children believe that their thoughts can influence the world around them—such as thinking that wishing for something can make it happen. This imaginative capability is a reflection of their developing cognitive abilities, wherein they struggle to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

In contrast, the other options represent concepts that emerge in later stages of cognitive development. Abstract thinking and high-level logical reasoning develop during the formal operational stage, typically starting around age 11. Understanding of conservation, which is the idea that certain properties of objects, such as volume or mass, remain constant despite changes in form or appearance, is a cognitive advancement that occurs during the concrete operational stage, usually around ages 7 to 11. Therefore, the presence of animism and magical thinking distinctly