Children's acquisition of visuo-spatial dimensionality: A conservation study.

Abstract

The experiment investigated the effects of laterality, movement, and language on children's ability to conserve multiple-space relations. Onehundred and sixty Grade 1 children, 80 males and 80 females, who were of similar socioeconomic level and intelligence, were assessed for their functional knowledge of language and lateral dominance and then randomly assigned to a spectator or participation condition. Those children who were bilateral exhibited more success in reproducing space relations than children who were lateralized. The results were interpreted in support of an iconic mode of representation and did not offer support of an extreme emphasis upon the importance of language or motor activity. Further analysis of laterality patterns indicated that children who were right-handed and left-eyed produced the main laterality effect obtained. The results were seen to be consistent with recent neurophysiological evidence attesting to the asymmetrical functioning of the cerebral hemispheres.