SPACE-PERCEPTION, COORDINATION AND A KNOWLEDGE OF KANJI IN JAPANESE AND NON-JAPANESE

Japanese children and Japanese adults have been found to be superior t o their American Caucasian counterparts on spatial ability. This diffe rence has been explained in terms of genetics, social pressure and env ironmental factors. The present paper isolates the possible influence of a knowledge of kanji on visuo-spatial performance. Subjects from th e following groups were tested: Japanese (with kanji education), Ameri cans of Japanese ancestry (with no kanji experience), and Caucasians ( with and without a knowledge of kanji). Two experiments to examine spa tial ability were carried out. The first investigated spatial visualiz ation (memory for position of objects in space) and the second spatial orientation (the memory for spatial movement-hand and body). Japanese subjects performed better than their Causcasian counterparts, regardl ess of their knowledge of kanji. However, performance of those brought up in Japan (both Japanese and Caucasian) was found to be superior to that of those who spent all their lives in the West (both Japanese an d Caucasian) on some of the spatial tasks. Cognitive strategies and th e question of genetic and environmental factors are considered.