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Visual spatial cue use for guiding orientation in two-to-three-year-old children
Danielle van den Brink1, Gabriele Janzen1
1Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands ; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Frontiers in Psychology
|December 26, 2013
Summary
Young children
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Cognitive science
- Spatial cognition
Background:
- Spatial development and environmental cue use evolve over time.
- Individual differences in orientation and navigation skills are understudied in early childhood.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate orientation abilities using visual spatial cues in 2-3-year-old children.
- Identify factors influencing spatial task performance in young children.
Main Methods:
- A Virtual Reality (VR) orientation task was administered to 30- and 35-month-old children.
- Children searched for a target using self-movement cues and landmark information.
- Parental questionnaires assessed daily living skills and individual differences.
Main Results:
- 35-month-olds successfully used visual spatial cues for orientation, unlike 30-month-olds.
- Neither age group utilized landmarks; performance depended on optic flow cues.
- Higher independence in daily living skills correlated with better orientation task performance in 2-year-olds.
Conclusions:
- Spatial cue utilization shows significant improvement within a 5-month period in early childhood.
- Individual differences, particularly independence, may be more critical than chronological age for spatial updating.
- Further research is needed to elucidate the nature of individual differences in spatial cue use.
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