Distinction between the concepts of weight and mass in high school students

Three experiments were designed to test high school students’ intuitive mastery of the concepts of mass and weight. The theoretical framework used is Information Integration Theory. Results indicate that, regardless of age, students possess two distinct concepts corresponding to each of these notions. However, the terms mass and weight are both understood in terms of one concept, that of weight (f of volume, density, gravitation), whereas the term ‘amount of matter’ is clearly related to the concept of mass (f of volume, density).