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Updated: Jun 13, 2026
05:15
The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
Not doing what you are told: early perseverative errors in updating mental representations via language
Patricia A Ganea1, Paul L Harris
1Department of Psychology, 64 Cummington St., Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA. pganea@bu.edu
Child Development
|May 5, 2010
Summary
Young children learn object location changes from words, but younger toddlers need support. Older toddlers (30 months) successfully used verbal testimony or observation, while younger ones (19-23 months) benefited from language when prior experience was minimized.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Language Acquisition
- Child Psychology
Background:
- Children's understanding of object permanence and location changes is crucial for cognitive development.
- The role of language versus direct observation in updating children's knowledge is a key area of research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how young children (19-30 months) learn about changes in an object's hidden location.
- To compare the effectiveness of verbal testimony versus direct observation for updating object location knowledge.
- To explore age-related differences in processing verbal information about spatial changes.
Main Methods:
- Children aged 19, 23, and 30 months participated in a hidden object task.
- Object location changes were communicated either through adult verbal testimony or direct observation.
- Performance was assessed by observing children's search behavior for the hidden object.
Main Results:
- Thirty-month-olds updated object location knowledge equally well from verbal cues or observation.
- Twenty-three-month-olds struggled with verbal updates, often searching in the last-seen location, even if empty.
- When prior observational encoding was minimized, 19- and 23-month-olds successfully used language to update location knowledge.
Conclusions:
- Older toddlers can integrate verbal information about object location changes with their existing knowledge.
- Younger toddlers' ability to update object location based on language is influenced by prior experiences and processing demands.
- Language plays a vital role in spatial updating, but its effectiveness depends on age and cognitive processing capacity.
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