The role of stimulus salience in young children's ability to discriminate two-dimensional rotations: Reflections on a paradigm |
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| Authors: | Rosemary A Rosser Sally Stevens Ensing John Mazzeo |
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| Institution: | University of Arizona U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | Children's ability to discriminate reflections and rotations of visual stimuli was examined within the confines of a mental rotation task. It was hypothesized that success would be affected by both characteristics of the stimulus and by the subtlety of the discrimination required. Forty 3- to 4-year-old children were directed to mentally rotate a stimulus a given number of degrees and to discriminate the appearance of the rotated stimulus from among a set of alternatives. Four stimuli differing in the number of visual orientation cues were utilized across 24 trials. A significant effect was found for number of orientation cues, and data indicated the difficulty children experienced detecting reflections, a task which bears close resemblance to the yes/no option in prototypic rotation studies. Children were only successful with a limited range of stimuli when discrimination of a reflected foil was not required. Results are discussed in light of discrepant findings about children's kinetic imagery ability and the advisability of using this particular paradigm with young Children. |
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| Keywords: | Requests for reprints should be sent to Rosemary A Rosser at the Department of Educational Psychology College of Education University of Arizona Tucson AZ 85721 |
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