I. Uehara, Differences in recognition and preference among four- and five-year-olds on a tactile learning and visual test, PERC MOT SK, 89(3), 1999, pp. 1029-1035
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.