How children combine vision and touch when perceiving the shape of objects

Abstract

Descriptive findings are now available on developmental changes in the ways children explore objects by eye and by hand in order to perceive their characteristics. The major question for this research was how vision and touch cooperate perceptually to gather information about unfamiliar shapes. We assumed that by ages 4 and 5, a cooperative division of labor for purposes of information gathering would be established between the two perceptual systems. Both observational and performance data supported the conclusion that for the perception of shape characteristics, the eyes are given an almost exclusive role, with hands serving mainly to orient objects for visual inspection. These findings are contrary to those of some Soviet researchers and suggest a different interpretation of the relations between vision and touch during the course of growth. © 1972 Psychonomic Society, Inc.