The planning of tool-to-object relations in young children

Abstract

This study investigated the way young children used a cane for displacing an object. In the experiment, 11 children with an average age of 32.3 months were asked to pick up a cane (hooked stick) that was located and orientated differently on each trial. With this cane they had to displace a target-object towards a free-to-choose goal location. The way the children used the cane for transporting the object was not determined by its starting location and orientation relative to the object. In fact, the children preferred enclosing the object in the hook, irrespective of the starting configuration. This contradicts a prediction that follows from an earlier study by Van Leeuwen et al. (1994). Final location of the target object and hand use was influenced by preferences as well as constraining task variables.