Abstract
Young children under the age of 8 - 9 years tend to confuse left-right mirror images, and it is thought that their linguistic skills play a crucial role in this phenomenon. However, other aspects of this confusion, such as whether children confuse up-down mirror images or whether the meaningfulness of the stimulus influences matching performance, remain unclear. The present study examined the confusion of left-right and up-down reversed images by 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds using meaningful and meaningless figures in a task in which sample and comparison stimuli were presented simultaneously. Children performed more accurately when presented with meaningful figures and confused both up-down and left-right reversed figures, although they did so less frequently in response to up-down than to left-right reversed figures. Reversal confusion was greatest in 4-year-olds and no significant differences were observed between 5- and 6-year-olds. These findings suggest that the ability to discriminate reversed images may be associated with the development of a wide range of cognitive abilities including theory of mind, executive function, and suggestibility.
Highlights
It is well-known that young children under 8 - 9 years of age experience difficulty when discriminating left-right mirror images (e.g., Bryant, 1973; Cohn & Stricker, 1979; Cronin, 1967; Davidson, 1935; Jordan & Jordan, 1974; Thompson, 1975)
Post hoc multiple comparison tests for age (Tukey HSD, p = .05) revealed a significantly poorer performance by 4-year-olds compared with 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds and by 5-year-olds compared with 6-year-olds. These findings indicate that older children performed better than younger ones and that children performed more accurately in response to meaningful than to meaningless figures
No significant difference was found between 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds. These findings indicate that young children aged 4 - 6, especially 4-year-olds, often confused figures with their left-right mirror images regardless of meaningfulness
Summary
It is well-known that young children under 8 - 9 years of age experience difficulty when discriminating left-right mirror images (e.g., Bryant, 1973; Cohn & Stricker, 1979; Cronin, 1967; Davidson, 1935; Jordan & Jordan, 1974; Thompson, 1975). Mandler and Stein (1974) found that children 7 - 8 years of age recognize reversals of meaningful pictures more accurately than expected, this study did not include meaningless pictures as control stimuli. It is important to explore the possible factors other than linguistic skills such as reading and writing, that influence mirror image confusion in preschool children who have not yet fully developed reading and writing skills
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