The recognition of visual configuration and identity information by children and adults.

The tendency to rely on and the ability to remember configuration and identity information were examined in Exp I with 24 kindergartners, 3rd, and 6th graders, and paid graduate students and university employees. Ss saw, tachistoscopically, arrays of 4 Hebrew letters and, in one condition, made recognition choices between 2 incorrect arrays, one of which differed from the stimulus by items and the other by configuration. In 2 other conditions in which accurate response was permitted, ability to use configuration and item information independently was tested. All Ss tended to rely more on configuration than on identity information and were better able to use configuration than identity information. In a 2nd experiment with 19 Ss from the same age-groups as Exp I, it was established that the items could be remembered under explicit instructions to remember items and ignore configuration. By altering the configuration of items it was possible to produce item recognition decrements in younger, but not older, Ss. It is concluded that development aids visual processing, particularly through a functional integration of systems for handling identity and spatial information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)