Dimensional salience and speeded sorting of orientation by kindergarten and fourth-grade children.

Perceptual sensitivity and cognitive processing hypotheses relating to orientation perception in kindergarten and fourth-grade children were tested. Assessment of dimensional salience for orientation and form revealed that subjects at both grade levels identified geometric figures as being alike on the basis of form regardless of orientation condition. The effects of dimensional salience and orientation condition on speeded sorting were then investigated. Kindergarten results supported the cognitive processing prediction that orientation sorting times would vary as a function of orientation condition, but no differences were obtained for the fourth-grade subjects. In addition, the results indicated a substantial improvement in kindergarten performance when sorting on the basis of form as compared with orientation. Dimensional salience had much less effect on fourth-grade sorting times.