Differences in recognition and preference among four- and five-year-olds on a tactile learning and visual test

lnfants' preferential looking at novel objects and adults' preference for t he familiar indicate that preference may be influenced by whether the objec ts have been experienced previously. infants and adults may have opposite p referential tendencies; however, infants' preference for a familiar object which they have experienced orally casts doubt on this as a developmental p rocess. To examine both the influences of experienced modalities and age on the relationship between preference and memory, tactile-visual preference and memory tests were employed in 4- and 5-yr.-olds. The results indicated the dissociation of preference by recognition only in 4-yr.-olds: those who recognized the objects preferred the familiar and the 4-yr.-olds who could not recognize them preferred the novel. The 5-yr.-olds tended to prefer th e familiar objects regardless of recognition. The results ma suggest an age effect on the relationship between preference and recognition.