WOLFF, PETER; LEVIN, JOEL R.; and LONGOBARDI, ELLEN T. Activity and Children's Learning. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 221-223. Using a yoked control procedure, kindergartners either produced or observed interactions between pairs of toys. When paired-associate recognition was tested immediately, no performer-observer differences were detected. After a 24hour delay, however, the performers re-paired significantly more items than the observers. Intentional learning instructions did not change this result, indicating the centrality of motor involvement in children's learning.

LONGOBARDI, ELLEN T., and WOLFF, PETER. A Comparison of Motoric and Verbal Responses on Piagetian Rate-Time Task. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 433-437. While Piaget discusses extensively the centrality of the motor system as basis for the development of logical structures, this discussion is limited almost exclusively to the first 2 years of life, or the sensory-motor period. The purpose of the present experiment was to extend Piaget's thoughts on sensory-motor development to the preoperational child's performance of Piagetian ratetime task. Specifically, the ability to imitate motorically the experimenter's performance of the task was compared with the ability to give conceptually correct verbal replies to questions about the task. It was found that second-grade children were indeed able to imitate given rate-time relationship whereas their verbal (symbolic) conceptualization remained as inadequate as that of nursery schoolers, who were unable to imitate these relationships. The differential development of rate-time relationships in the 2 response modes suggests the need for, in Piaget's terms, a logic of coordination of actions which may exist in the absence of any indication of the symbolic understanding of logical or infralogical relations in the child.

The manipulation of unseen object pairs has been shown to facilitate the paired-associate learning of 5-year-olds, and has been interpreted as supporting Piaget's contention that mental imagery is based in the overt activity of the child. In the present study, we examined the child's ability to generate memory-enhancing interactions between object pairs when either visual contact with the objects, tactual contact, or both were absent. The paired-associate performance of each of these activity groups (Visual-Tactual, Visual-No Tactual, No Visual-Tactual, and No Visual-No Tactual) was compared with corresponding control groups which received imagery instructions, but had no opportunity to manipulate the object pairs. Rated quality of overt manipulation was lowered by the absence of tactual contact with the objects, but not by the absence of visual contact. Quality of manipulation was positively related to amount of facilitation of paired-associate performance. These results demonstrate the kindergarten child's relative inability to produce ongoing thematic activity when this activity is physically separated from the objects involved.