Children struggle beyond preschool-age in a continuous version of the ambiguous figures task

Rafetseder, Eva, Schuster, Sarah, Hawelka, Stefan, Doherty, Martin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4314-7892, Anderson, Britt, Danckert, James and Stöttinger, Elisabeth (2021) Children struggle beyond preschool-age in a continuous version of the ambiguous figures task. Psychological Research, 85. 828–841. ISSN 0340-0727

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Abstract

Children until the age of five are only able to reverse an ambiguous figure when they are informed about the second interpretation. In two experiments, we examined whether children’s difficulties would extend to a continuous version of the ambiguous figures task. Children (Experiment 1: 66 3- to 5-year olds; Experiment 2: 54 4- to 9-year olds) and adult controls saw line drawings of animals gradually morph—through well-known ambiguous figures—into other animals. Results show a relatively late developing ability to recognize the target animal, with difficulties extending beyond preschool-age. This delay can neither be explained with improvements in theory of mind, inhibitory control, nor individual differences in eye movements. Even the best achieving children only started to approach adult level performance at the age of 9, suggesting a fundamentally different processing style in children and adults.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: experimental and cognitive psychology,developmental and educational psychology,arts and humanities (miscellaneous) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3205
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 03 Jan 2020 04:01
Last Modified: 22 Oct 2022 05:38
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/73458
DOI: 10.1007/s00426-019-01278-z

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