Development of spatial recognition in preschool children: on Piaget and Inhelder's hypothesis of topological space

The developmental sequence of recognition of shapes suggested by Piaget and Inhelder has been examined in cross-modal (touch-vision) and intramodal (vision-vision) conditions by using the method of similarity judgement. In the first condition, after tactually exploring a standard shape, children from 4 to 6 yr. of age were asked to indicate which of two comparison shapes looked "most like" a standard shape possessing some features in common with either comparison. In the second condition, the procedure was the same as the first condition except that a standard shape was presented visually. Results showed that the number of topologically based responses decreased significantly with age in the touch-vision condition; however, there was no such tendency in the vision-vision condition. Also, the number of topologically based responses varied with the combination of shapes used.