The effect of interpolated experience on visual recognition

Two hundred twelve-year-old children were shown a circle-with-gap figure and, five minutes later, required to recognize this figure from among a graded series of similar figures. The interpolation of circles with different sizes of gap resulted in retroactive interference, the recognition error being either positive or negative according to the nature of the interpolated figures. The results also draw attention to the dependence of certain recognition errors on the age of the subject and indicate a developmental trend in the perceiving and recognizing of simple figures.