Directional effects on size transposition in preschool children

Forty-four preschool children were used in a replication of the Kuenne (1946) study, with the direction of transposition changed to make the larger stimulus positive. A prediction of no differential amount of transposition on a far test, between younger and older Ss, was verified. The difference in results from the previous study was considered to be due to two factors: (a) S preference for larger stimulus, and (b) greater ease of discrimination between pairs of larger stimuli. It is suggested that the Kuenne results do not demonstrate a difference in the transposition process which is dependent upon verbal mediation but rather on the development with age of perceptual selectivity and ordering which gradually counteract various biasing factors in the perceptual behavior of young children.