Cross-modality transfer of spatial information

First, second, and fourth grade boys and girls were tested on a spatial task requiring perception of the location of a group of three geometrical objects. The initial sensory input was either visual or tactual/kinaesthetic, and the choice stimuli, which were presented either simultaneously with the objects, or after the objects were removed (successively) were photographs of different configurations of the objects. There was no performance difference between th intramodal and cross-modal conditions, although older children performed better than younger ones, and performance was better under the simultaneous than successive conditions. It was concluded that in making complex visual spatial judgements, visual perceptual representations mediate performance under both tactual/kinaesthetic and visual sensory inputs.