The Development of Children's Representations of Large-Scale Environments

HAZEN, NANCY L.; LOCKMAN, JEFFREY J.; and PICK, HERBERT L., JR. The Development of Children's Representations of Large-Scale Environments. Cmum DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 623-636. In an investigation of children's spatial knowledge of a large-scale environment, 3-6-year-old children were taken through an environment by a specified route. Once the route and landmarks along the route were learned, children were tested on their ability to (1) travel the route in reverse (route-reversal knowledge), (2) name the sequence of landmarks along the reverse route (landmark-reversal knowledge), (3) infer the relationship between parts of the environment not directly traveled between (inference knowledge), and (4) construct a model of the environment. Results indicated that route-reversal knowledge develops before landmark-reversal knowledge, and inference ability develops last; the results also suggested that young children's spatial representations are routelike and poorly integrated in comparison with those of older children. Furthermore, the results of the model-construction task indicated that the ability to coordinate knowledge of the route, sequence of landmarks, and shape of the layout may be a prerequisite for formation of an accurate spatial representation.