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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Preschool children's ability to visually represent relations.

Susanne Koerber¹, Beate Sodian

¹Department of Psychology, University of Munich, Germany. koerber@edupsy.uni-muenchen.de

Developmental Science

|May 10, 2008

Summary

Children spontaneously learn to map time onto space, with 5-year-olds showing adult-like abilities. Comprehension develops before production, and abstract tasks aid 4-year-olds more than iconic ones.

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Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL): Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Spatial Cognition
Developmental Psychology

Background:

Understanding how children develop the ability to represent temporal sequences spatially is crucial for cognitive development research.
Previous studies suggest age-related differences in mapping abstract concepts.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the developmental origins of mapping temporal relations onto space in young children.
To examine spontaneous comprehension and production of temporal-spatial mappings.

Main Methods:

Investigated 122 children (3-5 years) and adults using spontaneous production and comprehension tasks.
Production tasks included iconic (3D objects) and abstract (discs) conditions.
Assessed performance across different age groups and representational conditions.

Main Results:

Five-year-olds demonstrated adult-like performance in mapping temporal relations onto space.
Significant developmental progress was observed between 3 and 4 years of age.
Comprehension of temporal-spatial relations preceded production, with 4-year-olds performing better in abstract than iconic conditions.

Conclusions:

The ability to map temporal onto spatial relations develops spontaneously in early childhood.
Dual representational demands in iconic tasks may hinder performance in younger children.
These mapping abilities emerge prior to formal instruction in notational systems.