P. Rulencepaques et E. Mullet, AREA JUDGMENT FROM WIDTH AND HEIGHT INFORMATION - THE CASE OF THE RECTANGLE, Journal of experimental child psychology, 69(1), 1998, pp. 22-48
We assessed the effect on performance of shifting from a perceptual ar
ea judgment situation, in which the physical quantity to be judged (th
e area) is present in the stimulus, to a situation in which it is not
present in the stimulus. Adults, 9-year-olds, and 5-year-olds were sho
wn combinations of horizontal and vertical lines of various sizes, pre
sented on the same wall or on different walls, and asked to estimate t
he corresponding area. The following main results were obtained (a) Wh
en width and height information items were completely separated, 5- an
d 9-year-old children gave the same weight to both dimensions in their
estimations; (b) when width and height information items were on two
different walls, adults gave a greater weight to the larger dimension;
(c) when width and height were joined, 9-year-old children gave a gre
ater weight to the larger dimension but when they were separated, they
did not. (C) 1998 Academic Press.