Sequential Pointing in Children and Adults

The development of visuomotor control in sequential pointing was investigated in 6- to 10-year-old children and in adults. In 3 experiments we manipulated task difficulty by changing the number, the size, and the spacing of the targets in the sequences. In Experiment 4, only 1 movement was required;...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental child psychology 2000-01, Vol.75 (1), p.43-69
Main Authors: Badan, Maryse, Hauert, Claude-Alain, Mounoud, Pierre
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adults
Age Differences
Age Factors
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child development
Child Development - physiology
Child psychology
Children
Children & youth
Cognition - physiology
Comparative Analysis
Developmental psychology
Developmental Stages
Difficulty Level
Eye Hand Coordination
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Male
Models, Psychological
Motor ability
Motor Development
motor preparation
motor sequences
Motor Skills - physiology
Performance Factors
planning strategies
Pointing (Gesture)
Pointing Behavior
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reaction Time
Visual Motor Functioning
visuomanual pointing
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Summary:The development of visuomotor control in sequential pointing was investigated in 6- to 10-year-old children and in adults. In 3 experiments we manipulated task difficulty by changing the number, the size, and the spacing of the targets in the sequences. In Experiment 4, only 1 movement was required; we varied independently the distance between targets and the distance of the starting point from the participant's body. Children's temporal and spatial parameters of the motor sequences showed large age-dependent trends, but did not reach the adult values. Comparison of performance across levels of difficulty and ages suggests that motor development is not a uniform fine-tuning of stable strategies. Instead, we argue that each stage of development is best characterized by the set of strategic components potentially available at that stage, and by the (age-dependent) rules for the selection of components in a given context.
ISSN:0022-0965
1096-0457
DOI:10.1006/jecp.1999.2522