| Abstract: | Perception of geometric forms and optical illusions in French and American children. — A 30-item series of perceptual problems involving geometric forms and optical illusions was administered to 357 French and 732 American children, ages 8 through 16 years. A developmental gradient was observed in both samples: performance correlated +.33 with age in the French sample and +.22 in the American. Age-by-age comparison of means gave approximately identical results, except at age 12 where the French children scored significantly higher. Prior research has shown the perceptual series to be uncorrelated with verbal and linguistic ability, but significantly related to performance on tasks (such as the embedded figures test) which reflect analytic capacity. These findings, plus the cross-national stability of age norms and developmental gradients found here, suggest that the series may have value as a research tool for cross-cultural study of interpersonal effectiveness and analytic aptitude. |
