This paper is a critical examination of Piaget's formulations on cognitive development based on recent social learning research. It is suggested that learning to conserve does not seem immutably dependent on the child's attaining some maturational age-related cognitive stage and that Piaget's theorizations do not sufficiently consider social variables influencing thought. Study findings reported here support the contention that attempts to characterize children's thinking on the basis of any formal logic model which does not consider social factors will not afford optimal prediction of children's conceptual response. (CS)