Preferential Cup Size and End-State Comfort in Children

For children, numerous factors have been shown to constrain second-order planning in object manipulation. The current research focused on the confluence of age (i.e., developmental effects), hand size (i.e., growth-related factor) and object size (i.e., task/environmental constraint). Children ages 6- to 11-years (N = 72) performed an overturned cup task with a researcher-selected (i.e., standard to all participants) and self-selected (i.e., selecting one of eight cup sizes) cup size. It was hypothesised that increased second-order planning, as demonstrated by the end-state comfort effect, would be observed when children were given the autonomy to select a cup size suited to action capabilities. Nevertheless, when all factors were considered (i.e., age, hand size, and object), age was the only significant factor. More trials with end-state comfort were noted with an increase in age. Findings are generally consistent with the notion of age-related changes in sensitivity to the end-state comfort effect.