Effects of three experimental conditions on preschool children's ability to coordinate visual perspectives

60 3-, 4-, and 5-yr.-old children were asked to coordinate visual perspectives in three conditions: (1) Piaget and Inhelder's "Three Mountain Task," (2) identify objects a doll could see against the side of two intersecting walls, and (3) choose a picture which represented which objects the doll could see. Both condition and age effects were significant. For all age groups there were significant differences between the "Three Mountain Task" and the other two tasks, with significantly more children responding correctly on the two object-identification conditions. No significant differences between the two object-identification conditions were found. While 5-yr.-olds performed significantly better on both object-identification conditions, no differences were found between the 3- and 4-yr.-olds on these tasks. No age effect was found on the "Three Mountain Task." Children of all groups found this task too difficult. 3-, 4-, and 5-yr.-olds seem better at coordinating visual perspectives than suggested earlier. Greater success on present tasks may be due to the reduced number of visual cues that represented alternate visual perspectives. Differences in cognitive demands of each condition were analyzed.