Minsky's approach to conservation is to propose some example agents, TALL, THIN, CONFINED. The existence of such agents in a child is justified on the basis of the kinds of judgements that childrent make. Importantly, Minsky defines these agents in such a way that they always conflict. So, failure to conserve reflects one approach (a rudimentary and ultimately flawed approach) to resolving such conflicts.
(NB: This reminds me of the fact that conflict resolution problems are basic fare for anyone programming a production system. Minsky's point seems to be that for the child, new conflict resolution schemes will emerge or will be learned.)
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