| Abstract: | Conducted 3 experiments to investigate the effects of introducing mirror-image configurations into orientation and position discriminations. Ss were 4-8 yr. old children. Results of 2 experiments suggest that the question of mirror images may be irrelevant to the way in which young children differentiate orientation and position; i.e., as many errors were made in successive comparisons of obliques when the obliques were not mirror images as when they were. Similarly when they had to discriminate the positions of dots in squares, Ss confused left with right and up with down as much when the choice squares were asymmetrical as when they were symmetrical. It is suggested that young children adopt a binary match-mismatch code in orientation and position comparisons, which tells them whether lines parallel each other or not and whether objects are in line with each other or not. This code can solve some discriminations but not others. When the code fails, it does so as much with asymmetrical as with symmetrical configurations. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
