ERIC Number: ED058949
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1971
Pages: 10
Abstractor: N/A
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The Companion Roles of Touching and Viewing for Shape Discrimination by Young Children.
Abravanel, Eugene
This document reports on a study of how the eye and the hand become functionally coordinated during growth. A specific question researched is "How do children use their hands as perceptual tools for exploring objects in order to acquire information about them?" It was assumed that a pre-school child would have evolved a form of eye-hand cooperation, and given a shape recognition problem, would show how he has produced a division of labor between the work done by his hands and the work done by his eyes. A procedure was formulated that would allow comparison of what hand exploration is like under haptic perception, with what hand exploration is like when the S may perceive shape through the combined use of haptic plus visual exploration. Two sets of materials were used--a set of wooden shapes and a set of 10 free-form solid shapes. Sixty children between 4 and 5 years were studied in connection with both sets of materials. It was found that the children used their hands as pedestals more than as perceptual tools; the dominant approach was to use the hands to position the object for visual inspection. The quality of hand use was almost fully subordinated to the function of visual inspection. The children showed minimal haptic exploration of the objects. (Not available in hard copy due to marginal legibility of original document.) (CK)
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Note: Paper delivered at Eastern Psychological Association, New York, 1971