Children's Construction of Horizontals, Verticals, and Diagonals: An Operational Explanation of the "Oblique Effect"

• Published in: Developmental psychology 1986-03, Vol.22 (2), p.213-217
• Main Authors: Frye, Douglas, Clark, Andrew, Watt, Dorothy, Watkins, Chris
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Differences; Biological and medical sciences; Child development; Developmental psychology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Perceptual Development; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Spatial Ability
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.22.2.213

A computer-based task was used to investigate the problem young children have constructing diagonals. The computer made it feasible to change how lines of different orientations had to be formed. It was predicted that if diagonals are difficult because of the operations required to conceptualize them, then changing how they had to be formed might make it possible for children to construct diagonals better than horizontals and verticals. Groups of 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and adults attempted to construct horizontal, vertical, 45° left diagonal, and 45° right diagonal lines in either horizontal/vertical-easy or diagonal-easy configurations of the apparatus. The results for the 5-year-olds supported the operational difficulty explanation. This age group showed an "oblique effect" ( Appelle, 1972 ) in the horizontal/vertical-easy configuration and a "non-oblique effect" in the diagonal-easy configuration. There was only an oblique effect with the 8-year-olds. The adults made virtually no errors on any of the lines.