Oral recognition of forms and oral muscular coordination ability. A longitudinal study in young adults

A study has been carried out to investigate the constancy of results in oral recognition of forms (RF-test) and in tests which demand a fine coordination of the oral muscular apparatus (MA-test). Twenty examinees with a mean age of 22.5 years were tested with both test forms in 1972 and retested 4 years later in 1976. The performances in the RF- as well as in the MA-test improved considerably. As to the learning (training) effect in both test forms, the test results acquired by training during the previous period have largely been preserved until the next test period 4 years later. Individuals with a given capacity to perform either the RF- or MA-test, showed about the same grade of ability 4 years later. The RF- as well as the MA-test seem to reflect a given ability, which, at least in this age-group, remained constant during a period of 4 years. These results may be explained by reference to the notion of schema in which some motor-sensory feed-back will be stored. The specificity of the perceptual and motor patterns used, may have produced schemata with good resistance against forgetting.