Facilitative effects of haptic training on children's visual problem solving.

39 fourth grade children exposed to a haptic (active touch) match-to-sample task made significantly fewer posttest errors, relative to control subjects, on a visual problem-solving task. Further, this reduction in errors was comparable to that shown by children who had received specific training in reflective problem-solving. The results were discussed in terms of the possible facilitative effects exposure to a haptic task can have on children's visual problem-solving.