Haptic Identification of Raised-Line Drawings by Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults: An Age-Related Skill (Short Paper)

Abstract

Past research involving adult participants has consistently shown that the identification of raised- line drawings through haptics was challenging. In the present study, we used a developmental approach to assess whether this skill was related to age and haptic short-term memory capacity. To that end, we asked sighted children, adolescents, and young adults to identify raised-line drawings of common objects by touch. We also measured their haptic short-term memory capacity. Results showed that picture identification scores and memory spans both improved significantly with age. Interestingly, memory scores accounted significantly for the variability in picture identification scores. These findings suggest that identifying raised-line drawings through haptics is an age-related skill. Improvement in haptic short-term memory capacity may play a role in the development of that skill.