Sequential pointing in children and adults

J Exp Child Psychol. 2000 Jan;75(1):43-69. doi: 10.1006/jecp.1999.2522.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Child
  • Child Development / physiology*
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Models, Psychological
  • Motor Skills / physiology
  • Psychomotor Performance / physiology*
  • Reaction Time