TITLE:
Left-Right and Up-Down Mirror Image Confusion in 4-, 5- and 6-Year-Olds
AUTHORS:
Izumi Uehara
KEYWORDS:
Preschool Children; Left-Right and Up-Down Mirror Image Confusion; Meaningfulness
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.4 No.10,
October
12,
2013
ABSTRACT: Young children under the age of 8 - 9 years tend
to confuse left-right mirror images, and it is thought that their linguistic
skills play a crucial role in this phenomenon. However, other aspects of this
confusion, such as whether children confuse up-down mirror images or whether
the meaningfulness of the stimulus influences matching performance, remain
unclear. The present study examined the confusion of left-right and up-down
reversed images by 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds using meaningful and meaningless
figures in a task in which sample and comparison stimuli were presented
simultaneously. Children performed more accurately when presented with
meaningful figures and confused both up-down and left-right reversed figures,
although they did so less frequently in response to up-down than to left-right
reversed figures. Reversal confusion was greatest in 4-year-olds and no
significant differences were observed between 5- and 6-year-olds. These
findings suggest that the ability to discriminate reversed images may be associated
with the development of a wide range of cognitive abilities including theory of
mind, executive function, and suggestibility.