Young children's Rod-and-Frame Test performance

Research on children's performance on the Witkin Rod-and-frame Test has suggested that children rely heavily on contextual cues in perceiving verticality but that this reliance decreases with age. In the present study this developmental trend in children younger than those previously tested was studied. The effect on performance of the conventional practice of tilting subjects in a chair which rotates about a seat axis, thus displacing the head away from the stimulus, was also studied. After a short training session 14 boys and 11 girls, 4.70 to 10.95 yr. old, were given 12 trials of the standard test while tilted about a seat axis and, on another day, 12 trials while tilted about a head axis. Although the axis of tilt and the order of presentation were nonsignificant, data tended to confirm the existence of a developmental trend in young children. An alternate scoring procedure to investigate errors in the direction opposite frame-tilt indicated that the initial tilt of the rod relative to the frame significantly affects the accuracy of judgments of the vertical.