Sequential pointing in children and adults

The development of visuomotor control in sequential pointing was investigat ed in 6- to 10-year-old children and in adults. In 3 experiments we manipul ated task difficulty by changing the number, the size, and the spacing of t he targets in the sequences. In Experiment 4, only 1 movement was required; we varied independently the distance between targets and the distance of t he starting point from the participant's body. Children's temporal and spat ial parameters of the motor sequences showed large age dependent trends, bu t did nor reach the adult values. Comparison of performance across levels o f difficulty and ages suggests that motor development is not a uniform fine -tuning of stable strategies, Instead, we argue that each stage of developm ent is best characterized by the set of strategic components potentially av ailable at that stage, and by the (age dependent) rules for the selection o f components in a given context. (C) 2000 Academic Press.