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Previous literature on children's visual pattern perception has suggested that preschool children may process hierarchical forms in a manner different from that of older children and adults. Data from some studies suggested that children are holistic processors of pattern information, while other studies characterized children as piecemeal processors. In this study, 4-, 5-, 6-, and 8-year-olds and adults were asked to draw four different hierarchical stimuli, two composed of letters and two of geometric forms. In the memory condition, each stimulus was presented for 5 seconds and then removed from view. The subject was then asked to draw it. This procedure continued until all four forms had been drawn. The control condition was identical, except that each model remained in view until the subject was finished drawing it. Results indicated that, contrary to earlier reports in the literature, younger children, like the older children, reproduced the global and local levels of the hierarchical forms with equal facility in both the copy condition and the memory condition. Four figures showing the reproduction task stimuli, the scoring scales, scores of drawing quality in memory and control conditions, and actual drawings of subjects are appended. (Author/GLR)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert