SPATIAL-ANALYSIS - AN EXAMINATION OF PRESCHOOLERS PERCEPTION AND CONSTRUCTION OF GEOMETRIC PATTERNS

An extensive series of construction-based studies have shown that chil dren as young as 3 years of age engage in active spatial analytic proc essing and that the character of this analysis changes with developmen t. The present study was intended to demonstrate that this kind of ana lysis is not limited to situations that require reproduction. Children 3.5- to 5-years-old were asked to judge which of several possible set s of parts matched a configured target form. They were also asked to c opy the target forms. Comparison of performance on the two tasks demon strated that the same developmental trends seen in the copying task we re exhibited in the perceptual judgment task. This was true for both s imple linear and more varied forms. Thus, this task provides important converging evidence that in perceptual judgment as well as constructi on tasks children engage in active analysis of the visual display.