Very young children are insensitive to picture- but not object-orientation

Abstract

In two experiments on very young children's response to the orientation of pictures and objects, 18-, 24- and 30-month-old children showed no preference for upright pictures over inverted ones. More importantly, we found that children in all three age groups were equally accurate and equally fast at identifying depicted objects regardless of orientation. These studies further established that young children's insensitivity to picture orientation does not extend to objects. These results, in combination with the earlier ones, indicate that only gradually do young children come to share the picture orientation preference of adults and older children and that their adoption of the orientation convention is not based on changes in their ability to process upright and inverted images.