The Role of Operative Knowledge in Picture Comprehension

Preschool children's responses to real objects and their pictorial representations were compared to determine whether they exhibited object-picture equivalency by spontaneously focusing on the inferred meaning of both types of items rather than on their observable details. Twenty three-year-old males each completed two matching-to-sample tasks where stimuli were presented as real objects, color photographs, or outline sketches, and responses were analyzed in terms of Piaget's concepts of figurative and operative knowledge. Results indicated that these preschool children did not consistently respond to objects and their pictorial representations equivalently, revealing a greater tendency to produce operatively based responses with real objects and figuratively based responses with the pictures.