Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Working Memory01:24

Working Memory

650
Working memory refers to a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow an individual to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. It is an essential cognitive function that enables the execution of complex tasks such as problem-solving, comprehension, and reasoning. Unlike short-term memory, which simply involves the storage of information for a brief period, working memory involves the active manipulation and processing of this...
650
Serial Position Effect01:03

Serial Position Effect

399
The serial position effect is a cognitive phenomenon where individuals are more likely to recall the first and last items in a list compared to those in the middle. This effect is divided into the primacy effect and the recency effect. The primacy effect is observed when the initial items in a list are remembered better. This occurs because these items are rehearsed more frequently or receive more elaborative processing, allowing them to be encoded into long-term memory more effectively. For...
399
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

1.3K
The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
1.3K
Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

611
The preoperational stage, the second of Jean Piaget's four stages of cognitive development, spans approximately ages 2 to 7 and is characterized by the emergence of symbolic thinking. During this stage, children use language, images, and symbols to represent objects and concepts, enabling them to engage in imaginative and pretend play. This symbolic thinking supports children's ability to perform make-believe actions, such as imagining a broom as a horse or their hand as a phone, blending...
611
Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development01:17

Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development

857
During Piaget's concrete operational stage, from ages 7 to 11, children exhibit a marked increase in logical thinking skills, specifically in relation to tangible, real-world events. This stage is characterized by the development of several essential cognitive concepts, including conservation, reversibility, and classification, all of which support the child's evolving capacity for structured thought.
Conservation and Constancy of Quantity
A significant cognitive milestone in the...
857
Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development01:19

Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development

381
The formal operational stage, as described in Piaget's cognitive development theory, begins around age 11 and extends into adulthood. It marks the emergence of advanced cognitive abilities that differentiate adolescent and adult thinking from those of younger children. This stage is characterized by abstract reasoning, hypothetical-deductive reasoning, and a more complex understanding of self and others.
Abstract Reasoning and Hypothetical-Deductive Thinking
Unlike the concrete operational...
381

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

2D mental whiteboards: Multidimensional spatial coding of serial order in verbal working memory.

Psychological research·2026
Same author

Math4Speed: A freely available measure of arithmetic fluency.

Canadian journal of experimental psychology = Revue canadienne de psychologie experimentale·2025
Same author

Looks like SNARC spirit: Coexistence of short- and long-term associations between letters and space.

Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)·2025
Same author

Attention-based rehearsal: Eye movements reveal how visuospatial information is maintained in working memory.

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition·2023
Same author

Ranking-space: magnitude makes sense through spatially scaffolded ranking.

Frontiers in psychology·2023
Same author

The impact of free will beliefs on implicit learning.

Consciousness and cognition·2022

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 12, 2025

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
09:05

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)

Published on: June 12, 2017

30.5K

Do preliterate children spontaneously employ spatial coding for serial order in working memory?

Jean-Philippe van Dijck1,2, Elger Abrahamse3, Wim Fias2

  • 1Department of Applied Psychology, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Antwerp, Belgium.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
|August 8, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Young children show varied spatial coding for memory sequences. Literacy may later calibrate this spatial coding to reading direction, like left-to-right.

Keywords:
childrendevelopmentserial orderspaceworking memory

More Related Videos

The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
05:15

The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

Published on: February 19, 2018

11.2K
Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

34.9K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 12, 2025

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
09:05

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)

Published on: June 12, 2017

30.5K
The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
05:15

The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

Published on: February 19, 2018

11.2K
Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

34.9K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Memorizing sequences aids language and math skills.
  • Literate adults often spatialise verbal working memory (WM) left-to-right, aligning with reading habits.
  • It's unclear if this spatial coding arises from literacy or is an innate ability shaped by it.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate spatial coding of serial order in verbal working memory (WM) among preliterate 5-year-old children.
  • To determine if spatial coding exists before formal literacy education and if its orientation varies individually.

Main Methods:

  • Assessed spatial coding of serial order in WM in 5-year-old children without formal literacy education.
  • Analyzed group-level data for systematic spatial coding.
  • Examined individual-level data to identify prevalence and orientation of spatial coding.

Main Results:

  • No systematic spatial coding was found at the group level.
  • However, 36% of children individually demonstrated systematic spatial-to-serial order association.
  • Of these, roughly half used left-to-right coding, and the other half used right-to-left coding.

Conclusions:

  • A significant subgroup of preliterate children naturally associate serial order with spatial representation.
  • This suggests innate individual differences in spatial coding orientation.
  • Literacy acquisition likely calibrates these individual differences to align with reading direction.