title: Development of carefulness and quickness observed for a tray-carrying task.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the developmental change in performance of groups of children instructed to behave carefully and quickly in a tray-carrying task. The subjects were 69 nonhandicapped children from a kindergarten, ages 3-4 to 6 years, and 20 adult students who volunteered. Subjects were instructed to carry as fast as they could a tray with a glass of water for 3 m without a spill. The amounts of water spilled and the times taken were measured. The amounts of water spilled were hardly different within groups of children of the same ages or between age groups. But the times were different among groups: the younger ones took longer, and the difference in time between tray-carrying and normal walking was greatest for the youngest group. Children could carry the tray as carefully as adults but could not do so quickly. The nature of the representation of the instruction in relation to the behavior of children and the difference in strategy to guarantee carefulness between children and the adults are discussed.
authors: Department of Education for Children with Disabilities, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan.
authors: Mitsuru
authors: M
authors: Kokubun
authors: Keiko
authors: K
authors: Ozawa
authors: Hideyuki
authors: H
authors: Okuzumi
authors: Toshihide
authors: T
authors: Koike
authors: Koichi
authors: K
authors: Haishi
authors: Yoshio
authors: Y
authors: Kitajima
authors: Tomio
authors: T
authors: Hosobuchi
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D016138:Walking