Visual and proprioceptive recognition of cursive letters in young children.

Submitted by root on Tue, 03/28/2017 - 13:29

TitleVisual and proprioceptive recognition of cursive letters in young children.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsVinter, A, Chartrel, E
JournalActa Psychol (Amst)
Volume129
Issue1
Pagination147-56
Date Published2008 Sep
ISSN0001-6918
KeywordsAge Factors, Attention, Child, Preschool, Discrimination Learning, Female, Field Dependence-Independence, Humans, Male, Orientation, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Practice (Psychology), Proprioception, Reading, Recognition (Psychology), Stereognosis, Writing
Abstract

Two experiments investigated visual and proprioceptive recognition of cursive letters in young children. In Experiment 1, children aged 3-5 years were asked to recognize a visually presented target letter after a 3s inspection time, from among two distracters: a highly and a moderately similar letter. Visual letter recognition improved rapidly between 3 and 5 years and was a function of the "uniqueness" of letter shape and of letter frequency. In Experiment 2, children aged 4-6 years were asked to recognize a target letter from among 2 distracters, after having traced over the letter in a "blind" condition, with their hand guided by the experimenter. Proprioceptive recognition developed more slowly than visual recognition, and was not a function of letter frequency. The results are discussed in terms of integration versus differentiation of perceptual information, and of the tendency to base recognition on local rather than global similarity.
DOI10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.05.007
Alternate JournalActa Psychol (Amst)
PubMed ID18599004