Stimulus Alignments in the Selection of Bigger Rectangles by Four- and Five-Year-Old Children

Abstract

63 four- and five-yr.-olds were presented pairs consisting of one square plus one rectangle with the bases, centers, or tops aligned and asked to select the bigger ones. The larger stimuli were selected more often under all aligned conditions, whereas the taller stimuli were also selected more often under the base- and the center-aligned conditions. In the pairs with the larger square and the smaller rectangle, children selected the taller stimuli most often under the base-aligned and least often under the top-aligned conditions and selected the larger ones more often under the center-aligned than under the base-aligned conditions. These effects of alignments did not appear in the pairs with the smaller square and the larger rectangle. Under the base-aligned condition, children selected the taller stimuli more often and the larger ones less often in the pairs with the larger square and the smaller rectangle than in the pairs with the smaller square and the larger rectangle. These results confirmed that 4- and 5-yr.-olds tend to attend to height dimension, and that, when height is salient, they tend to perceive taller objects as larger.