| Abstract: | Age differences have previously been found in the magnitude of the visual Horizontal-vertical illusion with an L figure. The present study examined the haptic judgments of an L figure among subjects across the ages of 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 20 years. Significant differences in amount of haptic illusion were found. The developmental function was curvilinear, decreasing from the 6-year-olds to 7-year-olds, and then increasing from 7-year-olds to a peak among 11-year-olds, followed by a decline to adulthood. Variation in the size of the illusion was also found to be related to the rate at which subjects of a particular age group typically move the limb in scanning the figure. The similarity of the haptic function to that obtained previously for the visual L figure was discussed in relation to Piaget's Centration theory. |
