THE EFFECT OF THE MEANING ADDED TO THE ARRANGEMENT OF OBJECTS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN IN A BIDIMENSIONAL ORDERING TASK

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to establish the facilitative effect of a training Procedure on children's ordering of objects concurrently on two dimensions.
The subjects were fifty-two nursery school children ranging in age from 5: 2 to 6: 4. They were tested and trained individually. In a test session, each subject was presented a matrix, in which nine cylinders were arranged in 3×3 formation according to their height and width. The cylinders being all scrambled by the experimenter, the subject was required to reconstruct the matrix (reproduction task). Every subject had to perform three reproduction tasks in one test session, and every subject had three test sessions: one before the training, another one immediately after, and a third one on the day following the training.
In the training session, half of the subjects (experimental group) were presented a matrix with a camera, a picture of an open-air fire, and a picture of a snowman around it. Also, they were given the rationale of the arrangement of the cylinders in the matrix, as: all the cylinders were persons; they were arranged so (on height) that all of them could sit for the camera; also, they were arranged so (on width) that the scantily-clad persons would be near the open-air fire, and that the thickly dressed persons would be near the snowman. Then, leaving the camera and the two pictures intact, they were to perform the reproduction task. They would receive the feedback from the experimenter, after the last cylinder had been placed. The procedure mentioned above would be repeated three times. The other half of the subjects (control group), in this session, had to perform three reproduction tasks without any clues such as pictures, except the feedback from the experimenter.
In the training session, the experimental group exceeded the control group in the number of the subjects who successfully reproduced more than two original matrices. In the test given immediately after the training, the experimental group was superior to the control group, in terms of the mean of “classification score,” one of the three measures of the approximation of reproduced matrix to the original one. On the day following the training, the superiority of the experimental group to the control group was identified in terms of each of the three measures of approximation.
The obtained results were discussed: the training procedure for the experimental group having improved children's skills needed for bidimensional ordering, particularly concerning their skill of classifying objects on width.