Spatial Knowledge Acquisition by Children: Route Learning and Relational Distances

Our purpose is to examine spatial knowledge acquisition via route learning processes. To gain as much control as possible, yet study learning in actual environments, we conducted field experiments using an unfamiliar suburban neighborhood and a subject population of 9- to 12-year-old children whose activity spaces are most highly oriented to the neighborhood level. In addition to multipletrial route learning, we gave subjects a battery of tasks including cue recognition, cue sequencing, and interpoint distance estimation, using a variety of route segment scenarios. The children generally achieved route learning after three trials and successfully completed on and off-route cue location and sequencing tasks. Subjects had difficulty with the distance estimation tasks, particularly when conditions of segment inclusion were violated. Sketch mapping and interpoint judgment tasks clearly indicate that this subject group found it difficult to integrate knowledge acquired from the two separate but partially overlapping routes. Results suggest that the term “route knowledge’ is ambiguous, for subjects can learn to navigate routes without having definable procedures for unpacking the basic spatial knowledge contained in routes. They can acquire the ability to learn and follow a route between an origin and destination while procedures for integrating that knowledge into an understanding of spatial layout may be absent. This suggests that the development of configurational knowledge structures is not a simple consequence of learning declarative and procedural knowledge systems. We emphasize the implications of these results for the cognitive mapping process and the need to understand spatial reasoning and its developmental phases.