This paper examines the developmental stages of haptic perception (the process of recognizing objects by the sense of touch alone), and attempts to clarify some conflicting results of studies of the effects of memory and object type. The paper also presents a specific study of haptic perception in 144 preschool and kindergarten children from various socioeconomic levels. The children were randomly assigned to two memory conditions and one of three object groups (Familiar, topological, or Euclidean). Training stimuli for the experiment consisted of two sets of three familiar objects. Each child played a "Can you find it?" game in attempting to recognize and choose a standard object that had previously been presented. Test stimuli were three sets of plastic objects corresponding to the three object groups under examination. Procedures were similar to those used in training with one modification in timing to determine the effect of memory. Results provided partial support for Piaget's theory of haptic perception. Data was analyzed to determine the effects of age, object type, difficulty level, sex, and memory on the development of haptic perception. (SDH)