DEVELOPMENT IN VERY YOUNG-CHILDREN OF TACIT KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING VISUAL-PERCEPTION

Abstract

Boys and girls (60) 1, 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2 and 3 yr of age were tested on 3 types of tasks: percept production in which the child''s task was to produce a visual percept in another, percept deprivation, exemplified by a varety of object-hiding problems and percept diagnosis in which the child''s task was to determine what the other was already visually attending to. The majority of 1 yr olds produced and comprehended pointing, and would sometimes hold out a toy to show it, but did little else. The 3 yr olds were at ceiling on virtually all tasks. At 1 1/2 yr, children usually showed a picture by holding it flat so that both they and the other could see it. From 2 on, they usually turned it toward the other in the adult fashion. Very few children of any age showed egocentrically, i.e., orienting the picture so only they could see it. By age 2, the children solved what were presumably novel showing problems for them, e.g., successfully showing to another a picture pasted on the inside bottom of a hollow cube. Hiding ability emerged later than showing ability but seemed well established by age 3. The role of the other''s eyes in seeing appeared to be quite well understood at least by age 2-2 1/2. Children of this age took the other''s hands away from his eyes before trying to show him something, and could usually tell where he was looking from eye orientation alone. These age trends reflected important developments in social interaction and communication and cognition about percepts.