Bimanual Stereotypes

Abstract

Five-, 7-, and 9-year-old children were trained and tested in a bimanual coordination task that required them to rotate two cranks (either at the same or at different velocities) using mirror (inwards or outwards) or parallel movements (clockwise or counterclockwise). The task consisted of tracing two lines of different slants, by turning the two cranks either at the same velocity (to draw the 45° slanted line) or at different velocities (to draw the 22° line). The same-velocity condition resulted in significantly better performance than the different-velocities condition with the age x angle interaction: the performance in the different-velocities condition improved considerably at 9 years of age. Mirror movement induced faster and more accurate performance relative to parallel movements in the same-velocity condition but not in the different-velocities condition. This difference was much greater in 5- and 7-year-olds than in 9-year-olds. The results are interpreted as reflecting a decreasing influence of motor constraints on bimanual coordination.