This research was designed to compare the responses of disadvantaged and advantaged 5-year-olds in typical Piagetian experiments, in order to determine whether differences exist in the normative characteristics of centering, conservation, egocentricity, space conception, and irreversibility. A sample of 60 children was drawn from a metropolitan kindergarten population. The ethnic composition of the disadvantaged group was approximately one-third black, one-third Puerto Rican, and one-third white. The advantaged group was mostly white with a very small percentage comprising Asian and black minorities. Disadvantagement was determined from Federal guidelines. Five tasks were given to each of the children. The results indicated that both groups are typically incapable of taking another's point of view. Both groups were also unable to conceptualize what something might be like without experiencing or perceiving it directly. However, the advantaged group seemed to be further along in other aspects of operational thought in comparison to the disadvantaged children--decentration, reversibility, and conservation. The advantaged 5-year-olds seemed to be able to respond more correctly to the before-after facets of a particular experience, to the coordinating relationships of the various characteristics of objects, and to the maintenance of the substance of an object while it undergoes change. (Author/JM)