Summary
A small-scale, monocular distorted room (DR) was used in an experiment involving 159 subjects aged 6–14 yr and 17 adult subjects (18–45 yr). A static cue (two exercise-books) and a dynamic cue (exploration with a bamboo stick) were used by these subjects to correct their mistaken assumption that the DR was normal (assumption NR).
Two studies were carried out: one concerning perception of the DR, the other relating to perception of the static cue.
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1)
Correction of assumption NR took place by means of the dynamic cue only and was always partial — i.e., the real extent of the distortion was not appreciated. It occurred in 50% of children aged 6–12 yr. There was an increase in the frequency of correction in those from 13 yr onwards, but a figure of 100% was never reached, even in the adults.
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2)
Correction of mistaken assumptions concerning the size of the exercise-books used as the static cue varied in both frequency and modality as a function of the appearance of logical thought.
Some of the relationships between exploration (handling) and logical thought at the time of its formation are also examined.
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Torre, L.V. The correction of perceptual assumption during the period of growth. Psychol. Res 41, 389–401 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00308882
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00308882