Citation

Behar I, Bevan W. Acta Psychol. 1956; 12: 342-348.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1956, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Seventy-four children, four to seven years of age, were asked to describe what they saw in a photograph of a three-sided building taken so that it appeared, in contrast to the buildings surrounding it, to have only one wall, although at the same time it appeared to be, or to have been, inhabited. The readiness with which the awareness of this incongruity was expressed was found to be a positive monotonic function of both mental and chronological age. The most frequent rationalization offered for the incongruity was that the building had been damaged by some act of Nature. Only three children, two of whom had seen such buildings, offered the correct interpretation.