Content uploaded by Robin N Campbell
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Robin N Campbell on Nov 15, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
The ability of three- to four-year-old children to use a map in a large-scale environment
Abstract
This paper reports a study which investigated the ability of three- and four-year-old children to use a map as a spatial representation. Recent research has demonstrated that young children can use simple maps to find a location in an experimental room or follow a route in a large-scale environment. The aim of this study was to extend previous research by asking young children to use a map when finding an object in a large-scale maze. Four hiding places were used which varied in terms of their spatial relations to nearby landmarks and the degree to which the children had to re-orientate themselves within the maze. The data collected from 36 children revealed a significant improvement in the children's performance with age. The ability of the threeyear-old children and the four-year-old children to use a map was dependent on the location of the hiding place inside the maze.
... Alloway et al. (2006) demonstrated that younger children perceived much stronger relationships between the simple tasks of visuo-spatial information storage and tasks that required complex information processing. Many authors have found that the essential components of adults' spatial competencies, including self-centered and not self-centered representation of spatial relationship(s) are present in children, even from the age of three (Bell, 1999;Blaut et al., 2003;Bluestein & Acredolo, 1979;Hale et al., 1997;Huttenlocher et al., 1999;Nardini et al., 2006;Rutland et al., 1993;Vasilyeva & Huttenlocher, 2004). Alloway et al. (2006) and Gathercole (1998), also showed that measures of visuo-spatial working memory reached asymptotic values at about 11 years of age and showed no remarkable further development in adults. ...
A large body of literature has addressed processes underlying human perception, with some assertions that children do not perceive space or colors in the same way as adults. Since children express themselves easily and acquire knowledge through graphic symbols, when determining psycho-motor maturity and perceptions of a preschool aged children, observers must evaluate their use of non-verbal graphics. Thus, we used young children's drawings to examine their use of color and spatial perception, as well as to identify differences between children in rural and urban communities. Of 94 participants from rural and urban communities, 46 were kindergarten aged (5.5-6.5 years), and 48 were preschool aged (4.5-5.5 years). Comparing children from urban and rural areas, there were significant differences in their perception of different colors and spatial relations. Motor abilities were significantly different between children of different ages and gender. We argue that the applied assessment methods, such as children's drawings, could be a basis for measuring effective learning and practicing of children's abilities as expressed in the classroom, and that tools may be useful for creating individualized educational plans and programs for developing children's skills through play.
... Frequently, pre-school children cannot cope with the complexity of information in these maps (cf. Rutland, Custance, and Campbell 1993). In maps, often one landmark only is considered by five-year-olds, whereas sixyear-olds spontaneously relate to two landmarks (Blades 1991). ...
This study investigates the capacity of children to develop map-based skills in spatial orientation in an urban environment unknown to them. In this quantitative study, a total of 328 pupils of grades 3–5 had to achieve specific skills with regard to map-based skills in spatial orientation (such as turning-off skills, transformation from map to place, finding one's direction, navigation). These skills were tested by means of a map of Münster (Westphalia, Germany). This paper focuses on factors of potential influence, such as prior knowledge in the field of map reading as well as family- and school-related previous experience.
... Research suggests that both adults and children use these landmarks at an early age, when they serve as direct cues to the location of an object (DeLoache, 1987;Shusterman et al., 2008). In contrast, young children fail to navigate by landmark representations on a map when the landmark serves as an indirect cue to a hidden object and therefore must be combined with geometric information (Rutland, Custance, & Campbell, 1993;Shusterman et al., 2008). Indeed, both children and adults show higher sensitivity to geometric information when maps are devoid of such landmarks compared with when they contain them (Dehaene, Izard, Pica, & Spelke, 2006;Shusterman et al., 2008): Representations of the geometry of the layout and of individual landmark objects may be mutually competitive (Lourenco, Addy, Huttenlocher, & Fabian, 2011). ...
Map reading is unique to humans but present in people of diverse cultures, at ages as young as 4 years. Here we explore the nature and sources of this ability, asking both what geometric information young children use in maps and what non-symbolic systems are associated with their map-reading performance. Four-year-old children were given two tests of map-based navigation (placing an object within a small 3D surface layout at a position indicated on a 2D map), one focused on distance relations and the other on angle relations. Children also were given two non-symbolic tasks, testing their use of geometry for navigation (a reorientation task) and for visual form analysis (a deviant-detection task). Although children successfully performed both map tasks, their performance on the two map tasks was uncorrelated, providing evidence for distinct abilities to represent distance and angle on 2D maps of 3D surface layouts. In contrast, performance on each map task was associated with performance on one of the two non-symbolic tasks: map-based navigation by distance correlated with sensitivity to the shape of the environment in the reorientation task, whereas map-based navigation by angle correlated with sensitivity to the shapes of 2D forms and patterns in the deviant detection task. These findings suggest links between one uniquely human, emerging symbolic ability, geometric map use, and two core systems of geometry.
... On the basis of Uttal and Wellman's (1989) finding that experience with a map prior to learning a spatial layout aided children's performance, Davies and Uttal (2007) also suggest that experience with maps is critical for learning to use maps, even if children understand the symbolic and representational nature of maps. Especially relevant to the current study, Blades and Spencer (1987) found that four-and-a-half year old children could use a map while navigating mazes drawn with chalk on the ground, and Rutland and colleagues observed similar results using a cardboard maze (Rutland, Custance, & Campbell, 1993). ...
Games provide important informal learning activities for young children, and spatial game play (e.g., puzzles and blocks) has been found to relate to the development of spatial skills. This study investigates 4- and 5-year-old children's use of scaled and unscaled maps when solving mazes, asking whether an important aspect of spatial learning—the ability to use scaled representations—is related to children's play with scaled maps. Results show that almost all children used the maps to solve the mazes at least occasionally, and use them consistently across maze difficulty and different types of maps. Map use and more accurate spatial scaling were associated with better maze performance. We suggest that maze activities including scaled maps might provide an opportunity for developing children's spatial scaling through play, and discuss future research directions.
... Recent studies, however, seem to point to a different conclusion: "children as young as 3 years therefore had, and greatly favored, spatial representations that were not purely egocentric . . . [we conclude that] core components of adult spatial competence, including parallel egocentric and nonegocentric representations of space, are present as early as 3 years" (Nardini et al. 2006; see also Bluestein and Acredolo 1979;Hale et al. 1997;Rutland et al. 1993;Bell 1999;Dalke 1998;DeLoache et al. 1999;Huttenlocher et dl. 1999;Blaut et al. 2003;Vasilyeva and Huttenlocher 2004 Based in part on these recent research studies, the authors of this article are now helping teachers experiment with a number of teaching ideas in a multiclassroom K-1 school in Harlem, New York, and an integrated K-12 school in Queens, New York. ...
The human brain appears to have several “regions” that are structured to do different kinds of spatial thinking, according to a large and rapidly growing body of research in a number of disciplines. Building on a previous review of research with older children and adults, this article summarizes the research on spatial thinking by young children. Three conclusions: brain structures for spatial reasoning are fully functional at a very early age, adult intervention can enhance both use and representational ability, and practice in early grades is an important, perhaps even essential, part of the scaffold for later learning.
... Lehnung, Leplow, Friege, Herzog, and Ferstle (1998), using a place-finding task, found that 5-year-olds use an orientation strategy dependent on local, proximal cues (akin to reliance on adjacent landmarks), whereas 10-year-olds are able to utilize more spatially complex distal cues. Rutland, Custance, and Campbell (1993) studied the effect of physical reorientation on memory for hiding places and found that having to turn upon entering a simple maze significantly decreased 3-and 4-year-olds' place-finding performance. This study, however, does not assess the continual reorientation associated with common route following. ...
Two domains of cognitive development that have captured significant research attention are children's spatial cognition and children's planning skills. Children's ability to use maps for navigational purposes is a task in which these domains necessarily intersect. This study was designed to examine 6-year-olds' complex route formation and reorientation skills. Thirty-six kindergartners navigated through a large-scale environment using a map. Participants were required to plan their own routes to end-points designated only on the maps. Success at navigation, as well as route length and types of error, were assessed. The results indicate that kindergartners are able to use maps to plan and execute routes, and that they demonstrate advance planning skills by reliably selecting optimally efficient routes.
Map-reading skill is relevant to education and professions in many disciplines. Understanding how individuals develop map-reading skill has useful educational applications for the intentional development of such skill across grade levels. Through an integrative literature review, this study aims to answer the question: How do individuals develop map-reading skill from childhood to adulthood? Fischer’s skill theory informs the coding manual developed to record targeted information from 154 articles, its discussion, and a synthesis. The analysis reveals broad interest in map-related tasks among three main research communities: cartographers, cognitive psychologists, and science education researchers. Most research studies do not focus on the development of map-reading skills and, instead, focus on map-use skills. Performance of one’s map-use skills, such as navigation or wayfinding, is dependent on one’s map-reading skill; however, research on the development of map-reading skill is meager. The dearth of research in this area is linked to the absence of identified skills, tasks, strategies, and processes concerned with map reading. We utilize within-map skills and tasks identified in the reviewed literature and apply inspiration from Fischer’s skill theory to develop a theory of map-reading skill development that unifies otherwise seemingly disparate and unconnected map-related skills addressed in different studies.
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Progressions-Geospatial-Technology-Thinking/dp/1443874272
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Progressions-Geospatial-Technology-Thinking/dp/1443874272
Part 1 Processes of environmental cognition: environmental cognition - a conceptual and methodological review routes, directions and action planning. Part 2 The development of environmental cognition - from body-image onwards: the location of objects and self in space the child in geographical space investigating the child's cognitive map the role of direct experience of the environment in the development of cognitive representations maps and their use - symbolic sources of information about the environment the child's image of distant places - media, maps and formal geography expand the area known. Part 3 Applications of environmental cognition research: the child with special needs and the physical environment designing for the child's needs geographical and environmental education.
Previous research has demonstrated that even very young children can use simple maps to find a location. The aim of our study was to find out if young children (aged 4–6 years) could also use a map to follow a route. A large-scale maze (25 metres long) was designed in a school playground and 120 children, divided into five age groups, were given maps of the maze. The children were asked to walk through the maze, and to do this successfully they had to make correct route choices at different T-junctions in the maze. For half the children, salient landmarks were placed at the junctions in the maze (and on the maps). In both conditions all but the youngest age group performed much better than chance expectations and were able to use the maps successfully.
