specifics of visuo-spatial processing in urban and rural primary school children
TRANSCRIPT
www.ij‐psychol.org International Journal of Advances in Psychology (IJAP) Volume 2 Issue 4, November 2013
DOI: 10.14355/ijap.2013.0204.02
186
Specifics of Visuo‐spatial Processing in Urban
and Rural Primary School Children Gilberto Galindo *1, Regina Machinskaya 2, Claudia Basilio 3, and Yulia Solovieva3
*1Neurosciences and Cognition Laboratory, Autonomous University of Baja California, México 2Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Cognitive Processes, Institute of Developmental Physiology, Russian Academy
of Education, Moscow, Russia 3Neuropsychological Diagnostic and Rehabilitation Master Program, Autonomous Univeristy of Puebla, México
*[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];
Abstract
The objective of the study was to analyze the possible
influence of socio‐cultural factors on visuo‐spatial
processing (VSP) in primary school children. The reaction
time (RT) and accuracy of local vs. global visual recognition
of Navon’s hierarchical stimuli (Navon, 1977) and the results
of performance on Luria’s (1966) neuropsychological tests
were analyzed in 6‐year‐old children from a rural (n=28) and
an urban (n=24) public primary school. The children of both
groups presented more difficulties in the recognition of the
local features of hierarchical letters compared with the
global ones. The rural group compared with the urban
group had lower accuracy and longer RT for global
recognition, shorter RT and lower accuracy for local
incongruent stimulus recognition, and inversion of Navon’s
global precedence effect. Neuropsychological examination
revealed significantly higher indices of difficulties in internal
image of objects, visual memory and visuo‐spatial analysis
and synthesis. In both groups, significant correlations were
found between the level of visuo‐spatial neuropsychological
task performance and the accuracy of visual recognition of
global features. Taken together, the results of the study
suggested the importance of global visual recognition in the
development of visuo‐spatial processing at primary school
age. The group differences showed the influence of socio‐
cultural factors on cognitive development in children.
Keywords
Visuo‐spatial Processing; Visual Recognition; Neuropsychological
Assessment; Socio‐cultural Differences
Introduction
Human sensations and perceptions are integrated into
a complex system of cognitive processes, which makes
the world a reality surrounding individuals. Visual
signals are especially important for humans in
ontogenesis. Properties of objects can be perceived as
having different visual patterns; and distinction
between these patterns has given rise to three basic
questions: Does the human brain process visual
patterns as whole structures or as its constituent parts?
Does this processing mode change during ontogenesis?
Can social factors influence visual perception?
The answers to these questions can be obtained with
the help of a previously developed test with
hierarchical visual stimuli (Kimichi, 1992; Navon, 1977,
2003). In these hierarchical stimuli (figure 1), letters
and shapes on both global and local level can be
perceived as different objects, with the subjects’
attention drawn to the appropriate level by instruction.
Therefore, this type of stimuli is useful for analyzing
holistic and detailed object recognition processes, their
interactions and their development in children.
According to Navon’s (1977) global precedence
hypothesis, human perceives the global aspect of
hierarchical stimuli first (or faster). The global
perception has some advantage as pre‐attentive
processing (Navon, 2003). Navon’s hypothesis is based
on the fact that recognition of the local aspect of
hierarchical letters takes longer in the incongruent
condition when the global aspect of stimuli conflicts
with the local one (figure 1). However, when the
subject’s attention is focused on the global aspect of
hierarchical incongruent stimuli, reaction time does
not increase significantly. More recent studies showed
that the law of “global precedence” (i.e. the activation
of global features processing before the local one) is
not invariable. Investigations of brain event related
potentials (ERP) (Han & Jiang, 2006; Heinze, Hinrichs,
Scholz, Burchert, and Mangun, 1998; Hoph, Luck,
Boelmans, Schoenfeld, Boehler, Rieger, and Heinze,
2006; Machinskaya, Krupskaya, and Kurgansky, 2011;
Weissman & Woldorff, 2005; Yamaguchi, Yamagata,
and Kobayashi, 2000) demonstrate that the recognition
of visual objects on global and local levels depends to
a great extent on top‐down regulation from the higher
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associative cortical zones. These findings lead to the
assumption that children’s visual recognition of the
whole object and its details goes through different
stages of development which are determined by
maturation of both bottom up stimulus processing and
its top‐down regulation.
Indeed, global precedence in children is not fully
developed until the age of 9 years (Dukette & Stiles,
2001, Poirel, Mellet, Houdé, Pineau, 2008; Porporino,
Iarocci, Shore, Burack, 2004). Preschool age was shown
to be an important period in global pattern recognition
development in the study presented by Dukette and
Stiles (2001) who used a copying version of the
hierarchical task in 4‐, 5‐, 6‐, and 8‐year‐old children to
demonstrate a good analytic competence with
difficulties in copying whole objects in two younger
groups, which was testified to be inferior global
perception in preschool children. According to
Porporino et al. (2004) the presence of neutral
distracters (stimuli which do not need to be
recognized) leads to a greater increase in reaction time
for global targets versus local targets in 6‐ and 8‐year‐
old participants. The older children and adults
showed the same pattern of RTs for both local and
global targets. The results of this study are suggestive
of separate developmental trajectories for global and
local level processes, with global processing
undergoing developmental change until the age of 8
years. Poirel et al. (2008) found evidence of an
evolution from local preference at 4 years of age to
adult‐like global preference at 9 years of age.
Thus, investigations of children show development of
global precedence until young school age period.
Preschool and early school age is deemed to be an
important ontogenetic stage involving significant changes
in visuo‐spatial processing (VSP). Multidisciplinary
studies show that this period is characterized by
functional maturation of the brain structures
providing top‐down modulation from the frontal lobe
to specific cortical areas, with their immaturity leading
to deficits not only of executive functions
(Machinskaya, 2006; Semenova, Machinskaya,
Akhutina, Krupskaya, 2001), but also difficulties in
visual recognition (Machinskaya, & Semenova, 2007).
These data let us presume that the age related
differences in VSP processing are best understood in
relation to the functional changes in a child’s brain.
According to Posner and Fan (2004), performance of
selective visual attention tasks depends on the activity
of three neuronal networkswhich provide alerting
(subject’s activity and motivation), orienting (selective
spatial direction of attention) and executive control
(conflict task resolving). All these systems include
different cortical and subcortical brain structures,
among which the leading role belongs to the right
prefrontal, the anterior cingulate and the parietal
cortices. ERP studies (Rueda et al., 2004, 2005) show
the development of brain network which underlies
executive control during selective visual attention in
children from the age of 4 to the age of 10 years, with
the most pronounced changes until the age of 6.A9
The accuracy of VSP task performance in children can
depend on not only visual information processing and
visual attention control, but also the effectiveness of
motor programming: errors such as slips, incorrect
motor programs or selection of inappropriate
intentions, committed at the motor level (Posner, &
Di’Girolamo, 1998). According to the data mentioned
above (Machinskaya, & Semenova, 2007; Posner, &
Di’Girolamo, 1998; Rueda et al., 2004, 2005) visuo‐
spatial processing has complex brain organization of
which components develop during a long‐term period.
Returning to the problem of global versus local visual
recognition, it can be suggested that maturation of
both executive control and visual information
processing could be the main factor underlying the
progress in global features recognition in children. In
order to investigate the relationships between global
versus local visual recognition and the other
components of cognitive activity (e.g., visuo‐motor
coordination, visual memory executive control etc.)
the results of Navon‐like behavioral experiments and
neuropsychological examination in 6‐year‐old children
were compared in the current study. Neuro‐
psychological examination allows studying and
comparing different aspects of cognitive activity
which could influence the VSP.
The second problem investigated in the present study
concerned the role of socio‐cultural factors in the
visual recognition development. Cultural factors are
important variables which may influence visual object
perception in children. The voluntary modes of
external information processing are developed in the
co‐activity with adults via interiorization. Higher
mental functions “originate in the process of cultural
development” (Vigotsky, 1929). Lack of any kind of
education is known to resulting in primitive behavior
with “non‐arbitrary forms of attention inadequate for
organized and stable forms of behavior” (Luria, 1992,
pp.42). Luria (1992) argued that this natural form of
attention is not sufficient to satisfy demands of social
behavior, therefore “there was a need for arbitrary
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188
artificial. that is, civilized attention, which is the
essential component of any work” (Luria, 1992, pp. 43).
Conversion of attention into its most complex forms
during childhood is closely related to external
demands, external arrangement of objects, the objects
themselves, educational tools and special attention
training (Rueda et al., 2005). All these factors depend
on a specific socio‐economic and individual family
situation (Hackman & Farah, 2008; Hudnall, 2003). In
this connection, brain maturation is an essential but
not sufficient condition for the formation of adaptive
cognitive processes. Recent studies have demonstrated
close relationship between the cultural development
situation and visual recognition in children (Faye,
Boland, & Nisbett, 2005; Roberson, Davidoff & Shapiro,
2002; Roberson & O’Hanlon, 2005; Quintanar &
Solovieva, 2006; Segall, Campbell & Herskovit, 1968)
as well as relation between the socioeconomic status
and the development of executive function and
selective attention (Hackman & Farah, 2008).
Some studies showed significant qualitative and
quantitative difference between cognitive performance
of rural and urban population, both in adult (Ardila,
1995; 2002) and infant (Solovieva, Quintnar & Lázaro,
2006) population in México. Other studies demonstrated
specific deficits of visuo‐spatial functions in population
with low educational level (Ardila, Roselli & Rosas,
1989; Solovieva, López & Quintanar, 2008).
Dependence of child cognitive development on the
brain maturation as well as socio‐cultural factors and
the data mentioned above (Ardila, 1995; 2002;
Solovieva, Quintnar & Lázaro, 2006) providing the
ground for current research topic and aroused interest
in investigating whether differences between rural and
urban socio‐cultural conditions can affect VSP in
young school children.
In this study, in order to analyze and compare VSP in
rural and urban children, two different methods are
utilized, namely behavioral study of local vs. global
visual recognition and neuropsychological assessment
based on Luria’s principles.
Methods
Participants
The participants of this study were 52 children (mean
age = 6.39 years, SD=0.31 years) without a history of
neurological diseases or vision problems from the first
grade. The first group included 6‐year‐old children
from urban school (mean age = 6.36 years, SD=0.28
years, n =24: 11 boys, 13 girls), the other group
included the children of the same age from rural
school (mean age = 6.42 year, SD=0.34 years, n=28: 15
boys, 13 girls) public school. Both groups were form
Puebla, México.
Before the study, children were asked if they had ever
used a computer. The results of this interview showed
that urban children knew what computer is, and most
of rural children had never seen a computer. Neither
urban nor rural children had used computers
systematically at home or school. The pre‐
experimental session was performed to train children
to use the keyboard as required for the experiment.
For the first time, the letters were presented in a
printed version to get sure that the children could
recognize test stimuli. Then a trial computer version
was presented, and the children were asked to press
the keyboard button as a response to the recognized
letter. Informed written consent was obtained from
school administration and parents before testing. The
assessment implied no risks for subjects.
Procedure
Recognition of hierarchical visual stimuli was
measured with the use of a large letter (6.4 2.4 angular degree) made from smaller ones (0.8.x 0.3
angular degree). The subjects were asked to recognize
one of the two letters (“H” or “E”) on global (big letter)
or local (small letter) level in two different blocks of 60
trials (Figure 1). Selective visual recognition was
studied using three types of hierarchical letter stimuli:
congruent, incongruent and neutral (with neutral
element “O”) Subjects were provided with a five
minute break between the blocks of stimuli.
FIG. 1 A. EXAMPLES OF VISUAL STIMULI: A – CONGRUENT; В –
INCONGRUENT; C, D – NEUTRAL.
The order of global vs. local blocks changed from
subject to subject. Different types of stimuli were used
A B
D C
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with equal probability in pseudo random order.
Subjects responded by pressing “0” on a given
keyboard with the right hand for letter “H” or
“1“ with the left hand for letter “E”.
Figure 2 shows the sequence of experimental events.
The child was asked to keep his/her eyes fixed on the
cross in the center of the screen.
FIG. 2 A SEQUENCE OF EVENTS IN ONE EXPERIMENTAL
PROBE (MILISECONDS: MS, REACTION TIME: RT).
The fixation cross was used to keep children’s
attention on the central part of the screen during inter‐
stimuli periods. The experimenter helped the children
to follow the main instruction, which was to look only
at the screen, and prevent them from attention shifting.
No special device was used for eye movement
monitoring. All target stimuli appeared in the central
part of the screen for 100 ms with the interval of 1500
ms. In each trial, a warning sound (587 Hz) started 500
ms before the target stimuli and lasted until the
subject’s response.
Before the test, the experimenter made sure that the
children could differentiate between small and big
letters by using printed variants of stimuli, name the
letters (H and E) and recognize keyboard buttons by
asking them to name the buttons. In the training
session, the sequence of twenty stimuli was presented
with the same time intervals as in the experiment.
Apparatus
The tests were carried out using PC software
“Butterfly” (Pulkin, 1996). Visual stimuli (figure.1)
were displayed on a gray screen at a distance of 45 cm
from the child’s face. Two keyboard buttons “1” and
“0” were used for subjects’ alternative responses
depending on the type of target stimulus.
Design
For the statistical analysis, the following dependent
variables were used: 1) Reaction time (RT) of correct
visual stimulus recognition and 2) performance
accuracy (number of correct answers). RT and
accuracy were analyzed for two cultural groups: urban
and rural (independent factor), and within groups for
two repeated factors: experimental condition (local vs.
global) and stimulus type (congruent, incongruent,
and neutral). The data were averaged individually
after elimination of RT considered too long (more than
1500 ms, 14.82 % of the total number of individual
responses) and too short (less than 100 ms, 3% of the
total number of individual responses). Responses with
too short (less than 100 ms) and too long (more than
1500 ms) RT were referred to as incorrect type. This RT
elimination procedure did not influence the statistical
analysis of behavioral parameters of correct
recognition of hierarchical stimuli. Short responses
were referred to as impulsive incorrect type due to the
known fact that even in adults RT of simple visuo‐
motor response is more than 190 ms (Welford, 1980).
The long responses were referred to as incorrect type
because the task instruction required fast reaction and
button pressing even if a child did not know the
correct answer. In these cases with long RT correct,
key button could be pressed just by chance.
Neuropsychological Assessment
We assessed subjects’ cognitive activity using Luria’s
neuropsychological procedure adapted for Spanish‐
speaking children (Akhutina, 2002, Solovieva &
Quintanar, 2009). According to Luria (1966), no
separate test could be used to evaluate complex higher
mental functions. Luria’s neuropsychological assessment
consists of special sets of tasks (listed in the right
column of table 1) which were developed according to
his concept of “dynamic localization of mental
functions” for examination of different components of
cognitive processes (listed in the left column of table 1).
In this study, the individual examination of child
cognitive development was performed by а
professional neuropsychologist according to the
criteria of qualitative neuropsychological assessment
(Glozman, 2002; Solovieva, Lázaro y Quintanar, 2006;
Quintanar, Solovieva & Lazaro, 2008). Errors made in
each test during the task performance were estimated
and arranged as follows: 1‐no difficulties in task
performance, 2–correct performance after self‐
correction or task repetition, 3–impossibility for
performance of the task. The individual test scores
were grouped to estimate different functional
components of cognitive activity and then averaged
over those sets of tests. Mean scores were used as
individual integrative neuropsychological indices (see
table 1).
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TABLE 1. PARAMETERS OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
Neuropsychological tests, arranging from 1 to 3: Integral neuropsychological indices
averaged from the left column values
Finger positioning
I kinesthetic analysis and tactile memory Tactile object recognition
Repetition of oral apparatus positions
Repetition of sound and syllables
Hands coordination
II kinetic organization Finger movement coordination
Serial organization of movements
Repetition of semantically independent words , 3 words repetition
III Auditory Memory Evocation of semantically independent words , 3 words repetition
Evocation of words after heterogeneous interference
Memorizing and then writing 5 letters IV Visual memory
Memorizing and then drawing 5 shapes
Copy drawing task (a house) V Visuo‐spatial analysis and synthesis
Choosing correct picture according an instruction
Coping letters and numbers
Self organization during playing without rules
VI selective regulation (executive functions)
Playing according some rules
Marching according speech instruction
Marching according clap instruction
Motor action according speech instruction
Result of Shultz table performance in rank
Selection of a particular face from the list
Drawing a boy and a girl
VII Internal Image of Objects
Object recognition by name, correspondence between name of an object
and real object
Denomination of objects
Drawing an animal
Repeating two words which sound closely
VIII Phonemic hearing Repeating 3 syllables
Repeating of a sequence of close phonemes
The complete examination lasted 50 minutes and the
tasks included directions which were made to each
child individually while sitting at the table in front of
the experimenter in a quiet room. Instructions were
given only once per task.
Results
Visual Recognition of Hierarchical Letters in Rural
and Urban Children
The number of correct responses in different
experimental conditions and for different types of
stimuli was analysed by repeated measures (RM)
statistics with Greenhouse‐Geisser correction. We
evaluated the influence of condition (two levels: local,
global) and stimulus type (three levels: congruent,
incongruent, and neutral) as within‐subjects factors,
and type of school (group) as between‐subjects factor
(two levels: urban and rural). The results of between‐
subjects statistics (factor group) show a significant
difference in visual hierarchical stimulus recognition
between urban and rural school children (F(1, 5) =11.00,
p =.002). In general, the number of correct responses
was higher in urban (mean = 14.79) than that in rural
(mean = 12.43) group. The results of within‐subjects
statistics showed that the number of correct responses
depended significantly on condition (F(1, 50) = 38.71, p
< .001). In both groups, the number of correct
responses was higher for global vs. local condition: in
urban group, for global condition mean = 17.54, for
local condition mean = 12.02, p < .001; while in rural
group, for global condition mean = 13.59, for local
mean = 11.25, p = .018. At the same time, a significant
condition group interaction (F(1, 50) = 6.29, p = .01) was observed. This interaction related to different
group effects in global and local condition: the
difference in recognition accuracy between urban and
rural group was significant in global condition (F(1,50)
= 27.07, p < .001), whereas it was nonsignificant in local
condition (F(1,50) = .49, p = .49). In global condition,
the accuracy was higher in urban group than that in
rural group (mean = 17.54 vs. mean = 13.59).
Stimulus was also a significant factor of within‐
subjects differences (F(1.7, 84.9) = 31.79, p < .001). All
three pairwise comparisons for factor stimulus show
significant results (.001 < p <.02). For both groups in
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both conditions, the lowest level of accuracy was
observed for the incongruent stimulus (see table 2).
Besides the main effect of Stimulus, we found a
significant stimulus condition interaction (F(1.49, 79.5)=16.8, p < .001), which could be explained by a
more pronounced stimulus effect in local condition.
TABLE 2 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS (SD) OF THE NUMBER OF
CORRECT RESPONSES (ACCURACY) DURING RECOGNITION OF
HIERARCHICAL LETTERS. THE NUMBER OF STIMULI WAS EQUAL (n = 20)
ACROSS ALL STIMULI BLOCKS AND STIMULUS TYPES.
Accuracy
Experimental conditions Urban group Rural group
Mean SD Mean SD
Global congruent 17.92 1.44 13.19 3.91
Global incongruent 16.96 1.78 12.43 3.88
Global neutral 17.75 1.39 14.96 3.55
Local congruent 14.46 5.11 14.00 4.46
Local incongruent 9.88 5.9 8.11 5.32
Local neutral 11.75 4.9 11.64 4.37
RM ANOVA statistics (sphericity assumed) was used
for RT values to evaluate the influence of condition,
stimulus type and group (as explained previously). The
main effect of group was not significant. The analysis
of within‐subjects factors revealed significant
influence of condition as main effect (F (1, 50) = 4.19, p
= .05). In both groups, RT for small letter recognition
was longer than that for big letter recognition for all
types of stimuli (Table 3).
TABLE 3 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS (SD) OF REACTION TIME
(RT) OF CORRECT RECOGNITION OF HIERARCHICAL LETTERS
RT(ms)
Experimental conditions Urban group Rural group
Mean SD Mean SD
Global congruent 758.58 171.14 874.75 232.14
Global incongruent 802.13 212.43 889.89 246.25
Global neutral 807.67 210.62 830.32 257.54
Local congruent 989.54 406.89 864.29 230.00
Local incongruent 1044.63 404.96 822.46 272.75
Local neutral 1007.5 471.72 891.14 284.45
Significant influence was found for condition group interaction (F (1, 50) =4.19, p = .046), but not for
Stimulus Group interaction (F (1, 50) =.81, p = .45). The RT data presented in table 3 show shorter RT in
rural group compared to urban group in local
condition. This effect was more pronounced when
incongruent type of stimulus was shown (significant
condition stimulus group interaction, (F(2, 100) = 3.58, p =.03). A significantly shorter RT for local
incongruent stimulus recognition in rural than that in
urban group was revealed (F (1, 50) = 5.52, p =.02). In
terms of rural children, paired t‐test demonstrated that
the RT to incongruent stimuli was significantly shorter
than that to neutral stimuli in local situation (t (27) = ‐
2.08, p = .048). In this group, the RT difference between
incongruent and congruent stimulus approached
tendency level (t (27) 1.49, p = .14). As opposite,
however, nonsignificant effect of incongruent stimulus
was found in urban group: RT for incongruent
stimulus recognition in local situation was longer than
that for other types of stimulus (table 3). These
observations testify to the inversion of the “global
precedence” effect (Navon, 1977) in rural 6‐year‐old
children, but not in urban children.
In global condition, RT for congruent stimulus was
longer in rural group, than that in urban group, but
these differences were not significant. These findings
are in line with statistically significant between‐
subjects differences in accuracy (table 2): rural group
showed lower performance of global congruent and
incongruent stimuli than urban group.
Neuropsychological Task Performance in Rural and
Urban Children
In this part of the study, results of examination of 48
children (all subjects from urban group and 24 subjects
from rural group) were analyzed. The results of four
children from rural group were not included in the
sample because of incomplete neuropsychological
examination. To compare the level of maturity of
cognitive functions in rural and urban children, we
used individual integrative neuropsychological
indices (see table 1, Method). The first analysis for
group comparison was one way ANOVA statistical
test using school type as grouping factor with two
levels (urban, and rural).
Figure 3 illustrates the mean values of neuro‐
psychological indices in rural and urban groups.
Significant between‐subjects differences were found
for neuropsychological index of kinetic coordination
of movements and actions according to three tasks:
reciprocal coordination of fingers and hands, and copy
and continuation of motor graphic sequence: the rural
group demonstrated more difficulties in performing
accurate coordinated movements with fingers and
hands (F(1, 46) = 14.55, p < .001). The results were
favorable for urban children who manifested correct
performance in majority of cases. In case of rural
children difficulties for coordination, perseverations
and slowing of movements were found. Such results
are in agreement with previous research which
claimed severe difficulties in rural children during
execution of tests for motor coordination (Solovieva,
Lázaro & Quintnar, 2008). Significant group difference
was also found in visual memory tasks (F(1, 46)=12.00,
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192
p =.001), showing reduced volume of visual memory
for symbols and figures in rural group. The visuo‐
spatial analysis and synthesis were estimated by use of
copy drawing tasks requiring recognition of dimensions
and image components. Neuropsychological analysis
of drawing task performance showed significant
difference between groups (F(1, 46)=9.06, p =.004):
more pronounced difficulties were observed in rural
children who also demonstrated difficulties in free
drawings, with signs of poor internal image of objects
structure and omission of relevant details for the
object definition (figure 4).
FIG. 3 GROUP MEAN VALUES IN RANKS (COLUMNS) AND
STANDARD ERRORS (LINES) OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL
INDEXES (SEE TABLE 1, METHOD):I. KINESTHETIC, II. KINETIC ,
III. AUDITORY MEMORY, IV. VISUAL MEMORY, V. VISUO‐
SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS , VI. REGULATION AND
SELF‐CONTROL, VII. INTERNAL IMAGE OF OBJECTS, AND VIII.
PHONEME RECOGNITION.
FIG. 4 EXAMPLES OF URBAN (LEFT) AND RURAL (RIGHT)
CHILDREN’S DRAWINGS. A – A HOUSE COPY, B – DRAWINGS
OF A GIRL AND A BOY, C – A DRAWING AN ANIMAL
To compare the results of both parts of the study, we
measured the bivariate relationships between two
behavioral parameters of global recognition: number
of correct responses averaged per stimulus type and
RT averaged per stimulus type, and three of eight
neuropsychological indices (II, IV, V). These indices
showed significant between group differences.
Spearman’s correlation nonparametric r‐score was
calculated for the whole sample (n = 48) and includes 6
comparisons. According to Bonferroni correction, we
considered the p value less than 0.09 to be significant.
The significant negative correlation (more effective
recognition correlated with low score received in
neuropsychological tests) was found between the
number of correct responses in global recognition task
and the value of neuropsychological index V (visuo‐
spatial analysis and synthesis) (r (46) = ‐.372, p = .009).
Negative correlation between global recognition
accuracy and the value of neuropsychological index VI
(visual memory) tended to be significant (r (46) =‐.347,
p = .016). There was no significant correlation between
RT of global recognition and selected neuro‐
psychological indices.
Discussion
According to the results of behavioural study of visual
recognition, rural children demonstrated significantly
lower level of accuracy in global recognition task as
compared to urban children. Moses P., Roe K., Buxton
R., Wong E., Frank L., & Stiles J. (2002) presented
neuropsychological observations that showed
difficulties of perceiving large shapes made from
smaller elements in preschool children younger than 6
years of age. Studies of developmental changes in
hierarchical stimulus recognition also demonstrated
relative difficulties in recognition of global features
versus local ones in children younger than 6 years
(Dukette & Stiles, 2001; Hadad & Kimchi, 2006;
Krupskaya & Machinskaya, 2012); Poirel et al, 2008;
Porporino et al, 2004). These data allow us to assume
that group differences in global visual recognition
obtained in this study can be due to immature visuo‐
spatial synthesis in rural children. This suggestion is
consistent with the results of the neuropsychological
examination of rural children made in the current
study, and neuropsychological testing showed that
rural children have more difficulties in performing
visuo‐spatial tasks than urban children. This
observation together with the negative correlation
between effectiveness of global visual recognition and
difficulties in visuo‐spatial activity in both groups
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193
allow us to made two important conclusions about the
specifics of visual perception in 6‐year‐old children: (1)
the recognition of global features of a visual object
plays an important role in visuo‐spacial processing at
this age, and (2) immature global visual recognition
leads to performance difficulties in tasks required
visual analysis and synthesis.
The analysis of the impact of experimental condition
and stimulus type on RT in this study showed
differences between urban and rural groups; that is, in
urban group the longest RT was obtained during
incongruent stimulus recognition, whereas in rural
group the conflict nature of stimulus either failed to
influence RT (in global condition) or led to shorter RT
(in local condition). In local condition, rural children
responded to incongruent stimuli faster than urban
but with numerous errors. Therefore, the reduced RT
does not correspond to a better performance of the
task, but reflects difficulties in focusing attention on
the significant level of incongruent hierarchical visual
stimulus (i.e. recognizing erroneously any letter at any
level which attracts their exogenous attention).
One hypothesis of the rural children’s shorter RT to
incongruent stimuli in local condition is the absence of
the global precedence effect due to poor differentiation
of the global features of the stimulus. This assumption
is consistent with the lower accuracy and longer RT in
global condition in this group compared to urban
group. Another explanation of the short local
recognition of incongruent stimuli in rural children is
based on the assumption of relatively immature
executive processes in this group.
According to Posner’s concept of attention (1990),
reaction to incongruent stimuli reflects the
effectiveness of executive functions. Posner and
Rothbart (1998) showed that in young children low
accuracy can be combined with short RT because
executive attention immaturity can prevent them from
experiencing the conflict between the stimuli. On this
basis, we can suggest relative immaturity of executive
control in rural children compared to urban children.
In spite of the fact that we did not find significant
group differences in neuropsychological index of
regulation and self‐control, some results of the
neuropsychological part of our study can support our
suggestion of lower level of executive processes in
rural children. Particularly, the low level of kinetic
organization in Rural children can partly be due to
immature selective regulation of actions. A
relationship between top‐down attention regulation
and development of visual information processing
was shown in 6‐year‐old children (Quintanar,
Solovieva, & Bonilla, 2006): children who experienced
attention deficit and deficit of self‐regulation and
kinetic organization demonstrated pronounced
difficulties in visual task performance, i.e. processing
visuo‐spatial dimensions, copying and drawing
pictures and their elements. The common neuronal
networks in the right hemisphere shared by both top‐
down executive control and visuo‐spatial synthesis
(Han, and Humphreys, 2007; Hoph et al., 2006) could
be one of the causes of their developmental interaction.
The results of our multidisciplinary study of VSP in 6‐
year‐old children from rural and urban schools testify
to immature visuo‐spatial synthesis along with
selective attention deficit in Rural group. The
substantial differences of executive processes and
visuo‐spatial perception between urban and rural
group suggest the influence of socio‐cultural factor on
cognitive activity in young school children. Rural and
urban cultural situations differ in terms of traditional
upbringing and education, complexity of visual
objects, volume of perceived information, parent’s
education. The particular effects of different social
factors are to be further investigated.
Conclusions
1. The children of both rural and urban groups
succeeded less in recognizing the local features of
hierarchical letters as compared with the global ones.
2. Rural children as compared with urban children had
lower accuracy and longer RT for global recognition,
shorter RT and lower accuracy for local incongruent
stimulus recognition, and inversion of Navon’s global
precedence effect.
3. The specifics of rural group visuo‐spatial processing
obtained in behavioral part of the study corresponded
to the results of neuropsychological examination:
Rural children had significantly higher indexes of
difficulties in internal image of objects, visual memory
and visuo‐spatial analysis and synthesis.
4. Significant correlations were found between the
level of visual‐spatial neuropsychological task
performance and accuracy of global visual recognition
in both groups. Taken together, the results of the study
suggest the importance of global visual recognition in
the development of visuo‐spatial processing at
primary school age.
5. The group differences in cognitive task performance
www.ij‐psychol.org International Journal of Advances in Psychology (IJAP) Volume 2 Issue 4, November 2013
194
show the influence of socio‐cultural factors on the
development of visuo‐spatial functions in children.
6. The results of our study show that rural primary
schoolchildren need to be supported by special
education programs aimed at development of
voluntary activity and visuo‐spatial perception.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We acknowledge the National Council of Science and
Technology for supporting the study and all the
children who participated in the assessment.
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Galindo A. Gilberto, Mexicali, Baja California, psychologist
with Master degree in neuropsychology, diagnosis and
rehabilitation from the Autonomous University of Puebla,
México, 2007, PhD in Health Sciences in actual course.
Coordinator of the Laboratory Neurosciences and Cognition
at Autonomous University of Baja California. Publications
related to Neuropsychology and Attention. Research interest
is mostly related to psychophysiology and cognitive
processes.
Machinskaya Regina, Head of Laboratory of Neuro‐
physiology of Cognitive Processes, Institute of
Developmental Physiology, Russian Academy of Education,
Moscow, Russia. Professor, Chair of Psychology and
Pedagogical Anthropology, Moscow State Linguistic
University. PhD in biology, ScD in biology, graduated from
Moscow State University, Psychology Department. Reseach
interests include brain organization of cognitive processes
(working memory, selective attention, object visual
perception) in preschool and primary school children; brain
mechanisms of cognitive deficits in ADHD children.
Basilio A. Claudia, assessor in the Resouurces Center of
Generalized Development Disorders and Information for the
Educational Integration No. 6 in Tlaxcala. Psychologist with
Master Degree in the Autonomous University of Puebla.
Actual research field in linguistics alterations in learning
disorders.
Solovieva Yulia, Research Professor at the Autonomous
University of Puebla, Master Degree in History, at the
Humanity University from the Russian Federation, Moscow,
Russia in 1993. PhD in Psychology, from the Psychology
Faculty in the State University from Moscow, Russia in 1999.
Postdoctor in Neuropsychology in Sevilla University, Spain
during 2002‐2008. Active member of several International
Associations and Academies.