Effects of action on children's and adults' mental imagery.
The aim of this study was to investigate whether and which aspects of a concurrent motor activity can facilitate children's and adults' performance in a dynamic imagery task. Children (5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds) and adults were asked to tilt empty glasses, filled with varied amounts of imaginary water, so that the imagined water would reach the rim. Results showed that in a manual tilting task where glasses could be tilted actively with visual feedback, even 5-year-olds performed well. However, in a blind tilting task and in a static judgment task, all age groups showed markedly lower performance. This implies that visual movement information facilitates imagery. In a task where the tilting movement was visible but regulated by means of an on-and-off remote control, a clear age trend was found, indicating that active motor control and motor feedback are particularly important in imagery performance of younger children.
Frick
Andrea
A
Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich CH-8050, Switzerland. depsy@gmx.net
Daum
Moritz M
MM
Wilson
Margaret
M
Wilkening
Friedrich
F
D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception; D009043:Motor Activity; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult