Anne D. Pick

A developmental study of tactual discrimination in blind and sighted children and adults

Normally sighted, partially sighted and totally blind Ss from 6 years to adults performed a tactual discrimination task requiring them to judge whether two raised line figures were alike or different. The number of errors made in the task depended on the age of S, the amount of vision present, and the nature of the differences between members of the pairs. These results were compared to data obtained by other investigators on visual discrimination of similar figures.

A Developmental Study of Visual Selective Attention.

Abstract The experiment was designed to identify processes underlying a developmental trend toward greater selectivity of attention. Second graders and sixth graders compared some aspect of pairs of objects under two conditions. In one condition subjects were informed of the relevant aspect prior to stimulus presentation and in the other condition subjects were informed of the relevant aspect only after stimulus presentation. The older children had faster reaction times overall than did the younger children. In addition, the difference between reaction times in the two conditions was greater for the older children than for the younger children. An implication of the results is that children improve in their ability to focus attention exclusively on relevant information when they have knowledge of the relevant information. It was also suggested that complexity and codability of stimulus information affects the way in which it is perceived and recalled.

A developmental and analytic study of the size-weight illusion☆

Abstract The size-weight illusion was measured under three conditions in S s ranging in age from 4 to 16 years, and adults. Presentation conditions included one in which size of the objects was registered both visually and haptically, a second in which S s were blindfolded and size was registered only haptically, and a third in which S s held the objects by strings and size was registered only visually. In the visual condition, the magnitude of the illusion was low and decreased with age; in the haptic condition the magnitude increased with age; in the visual-haptic condition it remained stable. It was suggested that developmental trends in magnitude of the illusion under the three conditions reflected differences in intermodal and intramodal integration.

Perceptual Integration in Children

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the diverse experimental designs or tasks used in the investigation of childrens perceptual integration. The purpose of this synthesis is to find trends and identify persistent problems. The discussion focuses on methodological problems in the study of intermodal integration, to indicate where there are gaps in current knowledge, and to suggest substantive generalizations or hypotheses. From a methodological point of view, the potential usefulness of intra-intermodal experimental designs and sighted-blind comparisons is suggested. Currently available data using the intra-intermodal design are not always consistent from one investigator to another but this is probably because of procedural differences rather than a weakness of the design. Designs in which perceptual behavior, scanning, attending, and so on are studied directly are advocated, as are designs that include qualitative analysis of discrimination errors. It is noted that in localization studies the nature of the response should be taken into consideration along with the nature of the stimulus. Viewing localization as an intermodal task emphasizes the importance of the response modality.

Verbal encouragement and joint attention in 18-month-old infants

Abstract The effects of three different attention-directing actions toward familiar and unfamiliar objects on 18-month-olds’ frequency of establishing and maintaining episodes of joint attention were examined. The results demonstrated that the addition of verbal information to gestures promoted longer but not more episodes of joint attention. The results also indicated that adults’ verbal encouragements were particularly effective in promoting joint attention when the infant was unfamiliar with the target object. The results are discussed in terms of the role different gestures play in the promotion and continuation of joint attention in infancy.

PRODUCTION DEFICIENCY OF NONVERBAL MEDIATORS IN YOUNG CHILDREN

A nonverbal reproductive recall task, for which the possibility of a nonverbal mediator was provided, was administered to 40 first grade and 40 kindergarten Ss. 20 Ss at each grade level were observed in each of 2 conditions which differed in the strength of the suggestion to produce the nonverbal mediator. More first grade than kindergarten Ss spontaneously produced mediators while more kindergarten Ss never produced mediators. Kindergarteners required stronger suggestions to produce mediators than did first graders. The results support a production deficiency rather than a mediation deficiency hypothesis for young childrens behavior in this type of task.

A developmental study of strategies of visual selectivity.

PICK, ANNE D., and FRANKEL, GUSTI W. A Developmental Study of Visual Selectivity. CmLD DEVELOPMENTr, 1974, 45, 1162-1165. The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesis that there is a developmental trend toward greater flexibility of strategies of visual selection. Second graders and sixth graders made judgments about 1 or 2 features of pairs of pictures of objects. The children always knew what to judge, but in 1 task, different judgments were made in an unsystematic order, and in a second task, each type of judgment was made repeatedly for a series of trials. The younger children generally responded more slowly than the older children, but especially so in the task in which different features were judged on each presentation. Also, children of both ages could judge 2 features as quickly as they could judge 1. The findings are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that older childrens strategies of search and selection are more flexible and adaptable than those of younger children.

Visual and tactual identification of form orientation

Abstract Normally sighted Ss, 4 years old to adults, made form orientation judgments tactually or visually. Partially sighted and totally blind Ss, 6 years old to adults, made form orientation judgments tactually. Normally sighted Ss showed strong visual orientation identification which were consistent across the age range. Neither normally sighted nor totally blind Ss showed any clear tactual orientation identifications. Partially sighted Ss showed tactual orientation identifications similar to the visual identifications made by normally sighted Ss. The meaning of these results for the perception of form orientation is discussed.

Children's perception of certain musical properties: Scale and contour

Childrens perception of scale and contour in melodies was investigated in five studies. Experimental tasks included judging transposed renditions of melodies (Studies 1 and 3), discriminating between transposed renditions of a melody (Study 2), judging contour-preserving transformations of melodies (Study 4), and judging similarity to a familiar target melody of transformations preserving rhythm or rhythm and contour (Study 5). The first and second studies showed that young children detect key transposition changes even in familiar melodies and they perceive similarity over key transpositions even in unfamiliar melodies. Young children also are sensitive to melodic contour over transformations that preserve it (Study 5), yet they distinguish spontaneously between melodies with the same contour and different intervals (Study 4). The key distance effect reported in the literature did not occur in the tasks of this investigation (Studies 1 and 3), and it may be apparent only for melodies shorter or more impoverished than those used here.

Selective attention to words and colors

Ss made same/different judgments for pairs of words that were either color names or object names. The words of a pair were printed in either matching or different color print. Responses were directed either to print color or to the words or to both the print color and the words. Both print color and color names lengthened response time in several experimental conditions. A hypothesis was suggested that only the information necessary for judgments is processed initially; the words are read, and interference is produced only after color and/or letter-shape differences have been detected.