Evidence of a relational spatial strategy in learning the centre of enclosures in human children (Homo sapiens)

Tommasi, Luca; Giuliano, Alda

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2014.06.004

Cited by 7 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Another study created a more engaging version of the task in which children had to localize a hidden sensor to play music. In this test, children learned to identify the geometric center of different shapes and they also generalized to novel shapes and dimensions, suggesting engagement is important for learning and generalizing the concept of "center" 14 . Remarkably, day-old domestic chicks (Gallus gallus) were trained to identify the geometric center of one shape and transferred the rule to other shapes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

Middle identification for rhesus monkeys is influenced by number but not extent

Rugani

Platt

Chen

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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concept learning provides a fundamental building block for many cognitive functions in humans. Here we address whether rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) can learn the abstract concept of “middle” in a series of objects. First, we trained monkeys to select the middle dot in a horizontal series of three dots presented on a touchscreen. Monkeys maintained a preference to choose the middle dot despite changes in the appearance, location, and spacing of the horizontal series of dots. They maintained high performance when the color, shape and the length of the stimuli were new, indicating that their responses did not depend upon the particular appearance of the array items. Next, we asked whether monkeys would generalize the middle concept to a 7 dot series. Although accuracy decreased when the number of dots was increased, monkeys continued to preferentially select the middle dot. Our results demonstrate that rhesus macaques can learn to use a middle concept for a discrete set of items.

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confidence: 93%

Middle identification for rhesus monkeys is influenced by number but not extent

Rugani

Platt

Chen

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Further, as a more general point, the typical method of analysis for these kinds of data is to just report the rate of responses in the correct general area (plus any other general areas that are intentionally impossible to tell apart from the correct target) [9, 14, 29, 39, 41, 56]. This is an implicit endorsement of the Correct-Or-Guess Model.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coding Locations Relative to One or Many Landmarks in Childhood

et al. 2019

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Cognitive development studies how information processing in the brain changes over the course of development. A key part of this question is how information is represented and stored in memory. This study examined allocentric (world-based) spatial memory, an important cognitive tool for planning routes and interacting with the space around us. This is typically theorized to use multiple landmarks all at once whenever it operates. In contrast, here we show that allocentric spatial memory frequently operates over a limited spatial window, much less than the full proximal scene, for children between 3.5 and 8.5 years old. The use of multiple landmarks increases gradually with age. Participants were asked to point to a remembered target location after a change of view in immersive virtual reality. A k-fold cross-validation model-comparison selected a model where young children usually use the target location’s vector to the single nearest landmark and rarely take advantage of the vectors to other nearby landmarks. The comparison models, which attempt to explain the errors as generic forms of noise rather than encoding to a single spatial cue, did not capture the distribution of responses as well. Parameter fits of this new single- versus multi-cue model are also easily interpretable and related to other variables of interest in development (age, executive function). Based on this, we theorize that spatial memory in humans develops through three advancing levels (but not strict stages): most likely to encode locations egocentrically (relative to the self), then allocentrically (relative to the world) but using only one landmark, and finally, most likely to encode locations relative to multiple parts of the scene.

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“…A simple bias to respond 'in the middle', found here, could explain some of the effects described in the introduction. Three navigation studies have trained children to respond 'in the middle' in one set of task parameters and then observed them responding 'in the middle' after those parameters change (Ankowski et al, 2012;Sims & Getner, 2008;Tommasi and Giuliano, 2014 (Jones, Kalwarowsky, Braddick, Atkinson & Nardini, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ankowski et al (2012) found that two-year-olds frequently search by nearby landmarks around the space when a target is 'in the middle', but at 3 years old most searches were closer to the midpoint than any of the four landmarks. As part of the developmental time course, from the age of 3-5 years old, children will readily generalize learning about the middle of one simple geometric environment to a variety of other simple geometric environments (Tommasi and Giuliano, 2014). Children aged 4-5 years old also seem able to navigate to the middle of two landmarks despite the landmarks being moved further apart (Uttal, Sandstrom & Newcombe, 2006).…”

Section: In the Middlementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of two-dimensional versus three-dimensional landmark geometry and layout on young children’s recall of locations from new viewpoints

Negen

Roome

Keenaghan

et al. 2018

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Spatial memory is an important aspect of adaptive behavior and experience, providing both content and context to the perceptions and memories that we form in everyday life. Young children's abilities in this realm shift from mainly egocentric (self-based) to include allocentric (world-based) codings at around 4 years of age. However, information about the cognitive mechanisms underlying acquisition of these new abilities is still lacking. We examined allocentric spatial recall in 4.5- to 8.5-year-olds, looking for continuity with navigation as previously studied in 2- to 4-year-olds and other species. We specifically predicted an advantage for three-dimensional landmarks over two-dimensional ones and for recalling targets "in the middle" versus elsewhere. However, we did not find compelling evidence for either of these effects, and indeed some analyses even support the opposite of each of these conclusions. There were also no significant interactions with age. These findings highlight the incompleteness of our overall theories of the development of spatial cognition in general and allocentric spatial recall in particular. They also suggest that allocentric spatial recall involves processes that have separate behavioral characteristics from other cognitive systems involved in navigation earlier in life and in other species.

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Evidence of a relational spatial strategy in learning the centre of enclosures in human children (Homo sapiens)

Cited by 7 publications

References 37 publications

Middle identification for rhesus monkeys is influenced by number but not extent

Middle identification for rhesus monkeys is influenced by number but not extent

Coding Locations Relative to One or Many Landmarks in Childhood

Effects of two-dimensional versus three-dimensional landmark geometry and layout on young children’s recall of locations from new viewpoints

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