Development of spatial cognition

Question 1

what is spatial cognition used for?

Answer 1

locating objects

locomotion

navigating

assembling

science

Question 2

What are the two types of frames of reference?

Answer 2

Egocentric - (viewer-dependent, someone is in front of someone else)

Allocentric - (viewer-dependent, object north-east of person)

Question 3

what are the two types of information in spatial cognition?

Answer 3

metric representation - (objects are located with reference to distance and direction)

categorical representation - (objects are located with reference to a larger region, e.g. someones in the field )

Question 4

what are infants dead reckoning abilities?

Answer 4

at 9 months they can understand simple changes, like rotation and translation

at 12 months they can understand more complex changes, like the pairing of translation and rotation

Question 5

what are infants coding abilities?

Answer 5

have categorical coding at birth, which develops as they get older

do not show metric coding at birth but does develop later

Question 6

what are infants frames of reference do infants have at birth?

Answer 6

have basic egocentric .. but not allocentric until later

Question 7

spatial orientation in toddlers …

Answer 7

toddlers can use geometry and landmarks, they use these in a weighted way depending on salience (adaptive combination model)

Question 8

mapping in toddlers…

Answer 8

children aged 2.5-3 can understand the relationship between objects on a map and those in real life

however understanding the distance between that of the map and the real world does not develop until 4

Question 9

egocentric and allocentric coding in childhood …

Answer 9

at 6 yrs old they have allocentric representations of the world but struggle to combine the two.. instead they swap between them

Question 10

categorical coding in childhood…

Answer 10

at 6 can create subdivisions in spatial layouts and at 7 can integrate info about location and objects along distance and angle

Question 11

mapping in childhood…

Answer 11

at 4 children can use distance cues in maps to understand the location of hidden objects

at 5 they can use angular information to place objects in locations indicated by the map

Question 12

what underlies developmental changes in spatial cognition?

Answer 12

• hipppocampal development and location memory

- interactions with the physical world