Visual perception skills testing: preliminary results

Abstract

Good visual perception skills are important in the effective manipulation of Tangible User Interfaces. This paper reports on the application of a test set researchers have developed specifically to quantify the visual perception skills of children when matching a physical object to its flat representation on paper. A pilot evaluation, with two groups of children from differing socio-economic backgrounds, was conducted to quantify their ability to make the mental transformation from tangible objects to the drawings that represent those objects. The test instrument is described. Researchers found a marked difference between the two groups in their ability to make the transformation.