ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we examined children’s use of two possible strategies for solving spatial problems which involve a transformation in the perspective on an object. Specifically, we proposed that an object containing identifiable canonical features, such as top, bottom, left, right, would be represented in terms of those features and judgements of appearance from alternative perspectives would be based on the spatial relation between these features and an observer. Evidence for this strategy would be reflected in systematic differences in problem difficulty attributable to the codability of features of the display. Thus, in purely linguistic and logical terms, if a child sees the “front” of the doll, then a viewer separated from the children by 180° must necessarily see the “back” of that doll. It is also possible, that objects which are less amenable to such featural descriptions, such as abstract arrangements of blocks, may be coded in a different manner. The structural description constructed for the representation of these objects may rely not on the distinct explicit features of the display which are represented lexically by front, back, etc., but may include a richer variety of implicit features yielding a representation more analogous to an “image”. Evidence for this strategy would be reflected in an increase in reaction time as a function of the angle of separation between the child and viewer since some type of rotation of the image would be implicated. The results of the study, however, indicated that even for these complex abstract objects, representations are based on the distinctive features which are coded simply in terms of the position of the observer. These problems, nonetheless, are more difficult than are their counterparts using featured objects since the features must first be identified and distinctively represented.
