A comparative study of norms for a 400 picture set between Brazilian and American children Um estudo comparativo das normas de um conjunto de 400 figuras entre crianças brasileiras e americanas

Abstract ObjectiveObjective: This study compared Brazilian and North American children regarding naming, familiarity and visual complexity of a setof 400 pictures.MethodMethod: Thirty-six Brazilian children (18 boys) aged 5 to 7 were evaluated. Their characteristics and the study procedure andmeasures were the same as those employed for the North American population enabling direct comparison of data from the twosamples through Spearman rho correlations and Student t tests.ResultsResults: Positive significant correlations between overall results of Brazilian and North American children were observed for allmeasures. Qualitative analysis showed that both groups gave modal names that differed from the intended names for the same 59pictures. The Brazilian children named 72 pictures differently from the intended names that were correctly named by the NorthAmerican children, who named 26 pictures differently from the intended names that were correctly named by the Brazilians.ConclusionConclusion: The 400 picture set was shown to be an adequate tool for use in different cultures. However, it is advisable to avoidpictures that produced naming inconsistencies by the Brazilian and North American children in studies in other cultures with thesame age group until specific norms are made available.Keywordseywords: Child development; Memory; Cultural factors; Visual perception; Comparative study.