Transposition in children as a function of age.

Abstract

On the hypothesis that mechanisms operative in the transposition behavior of infrahuman subjects also operate in the transposition behavior of young children, and that the transposition behavior of older children is verbally controlled, this expt. attempted to test empirically the implications, namely, that young children tested at several steps from the training stimuli would produce a steep gradient, while older children similarly tested would produce a horizontal gradient. Forty children were divided into tow groups, the first ranging in age from 3-0 to 3-11, the second from 4-5 to 5-6. All were trained to choose the smaller of a pair of squares, 64 vs. 128. The Ss from each group were tested at points one, two, four, and five steps from the original stimuli. Spontaneous verbalizations were recorded, and a statement of the solution was solicited from most subjects at the close of the expt. The gradient for the older group was horizontal at a high level of transposition score. The gradient for the younger group dropped from a high to a low transposition score as test stimuli are removed from training stimuli. Inspection of the curves indicates that departure of the curve for the younger group from that of a horizontal one is of the general form and direction predicted in our original hypothesis. Tentatively confirming a previous investigation by Kuenne, the data on verbalization indicated that older children tend to verbalize their responses to size as the cue aspect, whereas younger children do not. 5. The expt. lens striking confirmation to the theory of transposition advanced by Spence.