Age differences in shape recognition through an aperture in a free-viewing situation

Young children (ages 4 to 10) show large deficits in correct shape recognition when the shapes are shown piecemeal through an aperture (Girgus & Hochberg, 1970). This study investigates whether allowing an S to self-program the sequential input results in accurate recognition performance. The stimuli used were a square, a cross, and a block “E.” The absence of self-programming in the earlier experiment apparently cannot account fully for the age-related deficits found in that research inasmuch as the results of this experiment still show a significant age effect.