Fifty five-year-olds were presented pairs of one square plus one rectangle with the bases or the tops aligned and were asked to select the bigger ones. Children selected the taller stimuli more often under base-aligned than under top-aligned conditions. Children selected the taller stimuli more often and larger stimuli less often in the pairs with the larger square and the smaller rectangle than in the pairs with the smaller square and the larger rectangle. These results were discussed in relation to children's greater emphasis on the height dimension.

Key words: judgment of bigness, quadrangles, stimulus alignments