The development of working memory spatialization revealed by using the cave paradigm in a two-alternative spatial...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Western individuals often spatialize verbal sequences, associating early items with the left and later items with the right.
• This spatial-positional association response codes effect suggests a left-to-right mental line for organizing information.
• The developmental trajectory of this spatialization in Western children remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the age at which Western children begin to spatialize information in working memory from left to right.
• To determine the developmental emergence of the spatial-positional association response codes effect.

Main Methods:

• A child-friendly protocol was employed with 274 participants across seven age groups (kindergarten to Grade 5, plus adults).
• The task involved associating animals with caves using a two-alternative spatial forced choice to assess spatial organization.
• Participants guessed the location of a specific animal within two caves.

Main Results:

• Children in kindergarten through Grade 2 did not consistently spatialize information from left to right.
• Participants from Grade 3 onwards demonstrated a left-to-right spatialization of working memory, mirroring adult patterns.
• This indicates a developmental shift in spatial organization of verbal information around Grade 3.

Conclusions:

• The ability to spatialize working memory content along a left-to-right dimension emerges around Grade 3 in Western children.
• This finding clarifies the developmental onset of a fundamental cognitive process influencing information organization.
• Understanding this developmental milestone is crucial for educational and cognitive science research.