The role of visual and haptic cues in children's discrimination learning

Three experiments using kindergarten boys and girls (Ns = 126, 84, and 72, respectively) tested the hypothesis that adding haptic to visual information facilitates discrimination of three-dimensional objects on more difficult (three-choice) problems, but not on easier (two-choice) problems. Kindergartners were given a two-or three-choice discrimination problem under one of four conditions of cue availability: visual cues, haptic cues, and visual plus haptic cues with stimuli touched or not touched before choosing. Addition of haptic cues did not improve performance either on two-choice problems (two or three experiments), as predicted, or on three-choice problems (all three experiments), contrary to predictions.