Children's visual regard and manual activity in retention of information about spatial position.

Abstract

Pointing and visual regard were observed in 64 Ss, nursery school through second grade, to assess developmental differences in the use of overt activity to mediate position of a target moving at a constant speed. On some trials the target differed from other stimuli in the array; on some trials it was identical to other stimuli; and on the remaining trials the target was identical to other stimuli, but for short periods of time was invisible to S as it moved behind an opaque panel. Monitoring the course of the target through pointing occurred infrequently and primarily among nursery schoolers and was unrelated to correctly locating the target at the end of the trial or trial conditions. Continued visual monitoring did facilitate location of the target. However, youngest Ss failed to increase visual regard as a function of the target's similarity to other stimuli, and Ss in all but the oldest group generally had difficulty in detecting the reappearance of the target from behind the panel. The ability of the oldest children to extend the principle of a constant speed to an invisible target did not appear to be a function of an intervening stage in development in which an overt and detectable activity mediated the absent target's rate of movement.