A Developmental Analysis of the Effect of Stimulus Orientation on Recognition

Abstract

Subjects of various ages were tachistoscopically shown geometric figures that had a distinguishing cue at one end, and at the other end, a 'focal' feature that determines the apparent upright for young children. The orientation facilitating recognition changed with age; a developmental change in the starting position of a serial-processing mechanism is proposed. It is an old observation, both in psychology and in everyday experience, that the orientation of a form influences its phenomenal appearance and also its identifiability. The interpretation of such observations is complicated by the fact that there appear to be developmental changes in the observer's response to orientation-a young child may be content to look at an upside-down book, but the parent cannot read it that way.