Motor-reduced visual perceptual abilities and visual-motor integration abilities of Chinese learning children.
This study investigated the relationship between motor-reduced visual perceptual abilities and visual-motor integration abilities of Chinese learning children by employing the Developmental Test of Visual Perception (Hammill, Pearson, & Voress, 1993), in which both abilities are measured in a single test. A total of 72 native Chinese learners of age 5 participated in this study. The findings indicated that the Chinese learners scored much higher in the visual-motor integration tasks than in motor-reduced visual perceptual tasks. The results support the theory of autonomous systems of motor-reduced visual perception and visual-motor integration and query current beliefs about the prior development of the former to the latter for the Chinese learners. To account for the Chinese participants' superior performance in visual-motor integration tasks over motor-reduced visual perceptual tasks, the visual-spatial properties of Chinese characters, general handwriting theories, the motor control theory and the psychogeometric theory of Chinese character-writing are referred to. The significance of the findings is then discussed.
School of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University, Panorama Avenue, Bathurst, NSW 2795, Australia. mlai@csu.edu.au
Mun Yee
MY
Lai
Frederick Koon Shing
FK
Leung
D001076:Aptitude / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D056228:Feedback, Sensory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006236:Handwriting; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*