The issue of scale errors as a separate behavioral phenomenon before the conducted research was rather an observation than a developed concept in psychology. Initially, the researchers in this new field noticed some single events in their everyday life and teaching and only in 2000-s it became possible to present and explore case errors from the scientific point of view. Scale errors are seen as the attempts of a child to fit in the objects that do not correspond to the actual size of the baby (Ware, Uttal, and Deloache 28). It indicates not only an occasional mistake but also gives us a chance to understand the specifics of the children’s visual perception disorders (Campione and Metz 45).
The goal of this seemingly insignificant research was to provide formal documentation of the scale errors that occur in everyday life. The frequency of the scale errors was not the primary purpose of the article as those events are not regular, unexpected and occasional.
The researchers decided to conduct two surveys with the same questions in real life and on the Internet. The participants of the first study were gathered with the help of printed media while the second filled up the questionnaire online; only those who followed up and called after this online research were considered. For the first study, 221 people regardless of sex and age were questioned. They were given some background information and video materials about the scale errors among the children. The further second study did not differ much; the total number of respondents here was 84.
The first survey showed that of 221 people, 87 stated that they had never encountered this problem, while 40 of them experienced a scale error at least once. The most widespread cases of the children’s errors in scale perception were attempts “to get into or onto miniature versions of objects from highly familiar categories” (Ware, Uttal, and Deloache 30); those were clothes, vehicles, and furniture and animal figures. The age of the children was from 1 to 3 years, and the distribution of cases war equal between boys and girls. The second Internet survey showed similar results, with 34 participants having no experience of scale errors and 49 having at least one.
The concept of the scale errors can be seen in the broader picture of the children’s space disorientation and distorted visual processing during their early development, which is studied by the children’s psychiatry (Haywood, Roberton and Getchell 55).
According to the authors, this research was the first of its type to provide a clear picture of the children making scale errors in everyday life and not only in laboratories. Most of the previous research was made on adults and animals, omitting the children (Ware, Uttal, and Deloache 8). The results of this study can be useful in teaching and parenting (the parents and caregivers will pay more attention to the children’s disorientation and, thus, will prevent possible health damages).
Overall, the article is clear and easily perceptible; it deals with a very specific topic that requires thorough quantitative research. The survey methodology seems to be unsophisticated but still it helps to get a clear picture of the reality. At the same time, the research may appear to be exaggerated. Such relatively minor phenomena as the scale errors, perhaps, should not be dragged in by the head and shoulders, but considered as a part of visual perception disorders.
Works Cited
Campione, Joseph, and Kathleen Metz. Children’s Learning in Laboratory and Classroom Contexts: Essays in Honor of Ann Brown. New York, NY: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Haywood, Kathleen, Mary Ann Roberton, and Nancy Getchell. Advanced Analysis of Motor Development. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2012. Print.
Ware, Elizabeth, David Uttal, and Judy Deloache. “Everyday Scale Errors.” Developmental Science 13.1 (2010): 28-36. Print.