The “when” and the “where” of single‐trial allocentric spatial memory performance in young children: Insights into the development of episodic memory

Abstract

Allocentric spatial memory, "where" with respect to the surrounding environment, is one of the three fundamental components of episodic memory: what, where, when. Whereas basic allocentric spatial memory abilities are reliably observed in children after 2 years of age, coinciding with the offset of infantile amnesia, the resolution of allocentric spatial memory acquired over repeated trials improves from 2 to 4 years of age. Here, we first show that single-trial allocentric spatial memory performance improves in children from 3.5 to 7 years of age, during the typical period of childhood amnesia. Second, we show that large individual variation exists in children's performance at this age. Third, and most importantly, we show that improvements in single-trial allocentric spatial memory performance are due to an increasing ability to spatially and temporally separate locations and events. Such improvements in spatial and temporal processing abilities may contribute to the gradual offset of childhood amnesia.

Connecting the Dots Between Past and Future: Constraints in Episodic Future Thinking in Early Childhood

“…Across the entire sample, retention of temporal information, but not spatial information, uniquely declined from the recall to the future condition. This is consistent with research showing that children retain spatial information better than temporal information (Lee, Wendelken, Bunge, & Ghetti, 2016;Picard, Cousin, Guillery-Girard, Eustache, & Piolino, 2012) and experience unique difficulty at integrating temporal information in future-oriented actions (Burns & Russell, 2016;Hayne & Imuta, 2011;Loucks, Mutschler, & Meltzoff, 2017;McCormack & Hanley, 2011;Ribordy Lambert, Lavenex, & Banta Lavenex, 2017). It is remarkable that declines were observed when children could have "simply" reproduced the same action sequences that were enacted in response to the recall task only a few moments earlier.…”

Low-Resolution Place and Response Learning Capacities in Down Syndrome

“…These results suggested that individuals with DS are capable of response learning from 16 months of age. Note that the same participants were tested on a place learning task, but consistent with the results of other studies describing the emergence of place learning between 21 and 25 months of age ( Newcombe et al, 1998 ; Ribordy Lambert et al, 2013 ; Ribordy Lambert et al, 2015 ), neither DS nor TD children were able to exhibit reliable place learning. The inability of individuals with DS to exhibit place learning was thus inconclusive.…”

Spatial orientation assessment in preschool children: Egocentric and allocentric frameworks

“…cues was found in 11 articles (Gouteux & Spelke, 2001;Hermer-Vazquez, Moffet, & Munkholm, 2001; Ribordy, Jab es, Banta Lavenex, & Lavenex, 2013;Ribordy Lambert, Lavenex, & Banta Lavenex, 2017;Schmuckler & Jewell, 2007;Twyman, Friedman, & Spetch, 2007;van den Brink & Janzen, 2013;Vasilyeva & Bowers, 2006;Waismeyer & Jacobs, 2013). Twenty-two studies used proximal cues (Crowther et al, 2000;Gouteux & Spelke, 2001;Hermer-Vazquez et al, 2001;Huttenlocher & Vasilyeva, 2003;Kaufman & Needham, 2011;Learmonth et al, 2002Learmonth et al, , 2001Lee, Sovrano, et al, 2012;Lee & Spelke, 2010Lee, Winkler-Rhoades, et al, 2012;Lew et al, , 2006Lourenco et al, 2009;Lourenco & Cabrera, 2015;Nardini, Atkinson, et al, 2008;Nardini, Jones, et al, 2008;Newcombe et al, 2010;Ruggiero et al, 2016;Twyman et al, 2007;Yousif & Lourenco, 2017), while those using both proximal and distal cues in the tasks were 14 (Bullens, Nardini, et al, 2010;Bullens et al, 2011;Hupbach & Nadel, 2005;Learmonth et al, 2008;Leplow et al, 2003;Nardini et al, 2006;Rodrigue...…”

“…The proximal cues usually used in the studies were traffic cones (Bullens, Nardini et al, 2010), small colored or geometrical wood pieces (Bullens, Klugkist, & Postma, 2011;Ruggiero et al, 2016), paper lanterns (Crowther et al, 2000;, rhomboid tabletop (Hupbach & Nadel, 2005), cylindrical figures (Huttenlocher & Vasilyeva, 2003), colored paper squares (Learmonth et al, 2002), bookshelves and doors (Learmonth et al, 2001), columns (Lee, Winkler-Rhoades, et al, 2012), sculpture objects (Lew et al 2006), led light figures (Nardini, Jones, et al, 2008), object pictures , toys (Waismeyer & Jacobs, 2013), colored or geometrically printed walls or curtains (Learmonth et al, 2008;Lourenco, Addy, & Huttenlocher, 2009;Lourenco & Cabrera, 2015;Nardini, Atkinson, & Burgess, 2008;Twyman et al, 2007), plastic boxes or colored glasses (Learmonth et al, 2001;Schmuckler & Jewell, 2007;, as well as the use of the environment's own geometry as an allocentric cue Lee, Sovrano, & Spelke, 2012: Yousif & Lourenco, 2017. The distal cues used were shaped neon lights (Bullens, Nardini et al, 2010), colored papers (Bullens et al, 2011), colored curtains and cardboards (Gouteux & Spelke, 2001;Hupbach & Nadel, 2005), and furniture Ribordy et al, 2013;Ribordy Lambert et al, 2017;Vasilyeva & Bowers, 2006). Studies assessing performance in outdoor tasks normally used distal cues, usually trees, swings, benches, water towers, and so forth (Mandolesi et al, 2009;.…”