Pictorial experience as a factor in the recognition of incomplete pictures

✍ Scribed by A. M. Bentley; J. B. Deregowski

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 490 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0888-4080
• DOI: 10.1002/acp.2350010306

✦ Synopsis

The study investigated the effects of distinctive feature emphasis and familiarity with pictorial materials on the recognition of incomplete pictures of common objects in three cultural groups. Contrary to a familiarity hypothesis Kxoe Bushman pre-school children were superior to both Zulu and white English-speaking Sth African pre-school children in recognizing fragmented pictures. Cultural differences were interpreted in terms of response strategies mediated by ecological and social variables. Children in each cultural group made effective use of distinctive features to aid recognition of fragmented pictures. The implications of these findings for the development of teaching materials were examined.

' The authors acknowledge the assistance and support of the Institute for Behavioural Sciences, UNISA, Pretoria, under whose aegis this research was conducted.

The author is grateful to the Leverhulme Foundation for their financial assistance.