The Development of Perceptual Averaging: Learning What to Do, Not Just How to Do It

Autor/inn/en	Jones, Pete R.; Dekker, Tessa M.
Titel	The Development of Perceptual Averaging: Learning What to Do, Not Just How to Do It
Quelle	In: Developmental Science, 21 (2018) 3, (11 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Jones, Pete R.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1467-7687
DOI	10.1111/desc.12584
Schlagwörter	Statistics; Task Analysis; Children; Correlation; Decision Making; Visual Perception; Adults; Comparative Analysis; Perceptual Development; Child Development; Age Differences + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Statistik; Aufgabenanalyse; Child; Kind; Kinder; Korrelation; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Visuelle Wahrnehmung; Wahrnehmungsentwicklung; Kindesentwicklung; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied
Abstract	The mature visual system condenses complex scenes into simple summary statistics (e.g., average size, location, orientation, etc.). However, children, often perform poorly on perceptual averaging tasks. Children's difficulties are typically thought to represent the suboptimal implementation of an adult-like strategy. This paper examines another possibility: that children actually make decisions in a qualitatively different way to adults (optimal implementation of a non-ideal strategy). Ninety children (6-7, 8-9, 10-11 years) and 30 adults were asked to locate the middle of randomly generated dot-clouds. Nine plausible decision strategies were formulated, and each was fitted to observers' trial-by-trial response data (Reverse Correlation). When the number of visual elements was low (N < 6), children used a qualitatively different decision strategy from adults: appearing to "join up the dots" and locate the gravitational center of the enclosing shape. Given denser displays, both children and adults used an ideal strategy of arithmetically averaging individual points. Accounting for this difference in decision strategy explained 29% of children's lower precision. These findings suggest that children are not simply suboptimal at performing adult-like computations, but may at times use sensible, but qualitatively different strategies to make perceptual judgments. Learning which strategy is best in which circumstance might be an important driving factor of perceptual development. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley-Blackwell. 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148. Tel: 800-835-6770; Tel: 781-388-8598; Fax: 781-388-8232; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01