Children's Strategies in Imagining Spatio-Geometrical Transformations

Abstract

Seventy-five children aged 6-13 years were assigned to one of five groups on the basis of performance on Piagetian tests of spatial-geometrical knowledge. Each child was then observed on a procedure which required that he or she imagine and execute three transformations of geometric figures: square-enlargement, diamond-enlargement and transformation of a small diamond to a large square. The figures were composed of a rubber band stretched around four pegs placed on a pegboard. Children transformed the figure by moving the pegs which altered the shape formed by the stretched rubber band. Rates of success, number and type of peg movements, and strategies for performing the transformations varied with operative level and task. Results were discussed in relation to Piaget's position on the image-operation relation and current investigations of imaginal processes.