The Manipulation Motive of Young Children

Children are known to be responsive to external stimuli and have a natural tendency to manipulate such things as are available, but few experimental studies have been performed on the nature of human manipulation, the quantity and persistence of its manifestation, and its function as a human motive involved in learning. Past researches were made more in connection with problems of children's play and attention, particularly with regard to their satiation and perseveration. It is only recently that a few papers have appeared on the manipulation of children. Hayes(2) investigated the play activies of young children, with the purpose to find out the number and latency of responses, the change in rate of play, and the factors involved in the maintenance of play. She conducted three experiments, employing groups of children aged 30 to 59 months and inviting them to auch games as the marble-., the clicker-, and the picture-games. In Experiment 1, colored marbles were used by the subjects to drop one by one into a box, with a tray at the bottom from which he was to get at the marble which the experimenter placed there.