Journal article
Children's Use of Frames of Reference in Communication of Spatial Location
Child development, Vol.61(5), pp.1528-1543
10/1990
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02881.x
PMID: 2245744
Abstract
The frames of reference used by 4‐, 6‐, and 8‐year‐old children were studied in a spatial direction‐giving task. Children were asked to specify verbally the location of a toy hidden under one of several identical cups. The child and listener sat facing each other at opposite ends of a room that had distinctive or nondistinctive landmarks proximal and distal to the hiding location. Location needed to be specified with respect to either the left‐right dimension, the front‐back dimension, or both. The results indicated that (1) although children's overall performance improved with age, communication about the left‐right dimension was particularly difficult for 4‐year‐old children and showed a higher rate of improvement with age than communication about the front‐back dimension; and (2) the frames of reference that children incorporated into their directions changed with age and differed for directions about the front‐back and left‐right dimensions. Both 4‐ and 6‐year‐old children used person references (themselves or the listener) to specify front‐back relations, but only the 6‐year‐olds were able to compensate for their apparent difficulty in using the terms left and right by using landmarks to specify the left‐right dimension. Eight‐year‐olds used a combination of person and landmark references in directions about both dimensions. Discrepancies between the frames of reference children used to communicate spatial location and those typically used in other spatial cognition tasks are discussed in terms of developmental and task constraints. Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Children's Use of Frames of Reference in Communication of Spatial Location
- Creators
- Lincoln G Craton - University of MinnesotaJames Elicker - University of MinnesotaJodie M Plumert - University of MinnesotaHerbert L Pick Jr - University of Minnesota
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Child development, Vol.61(5), pp.1528-1543
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02881.x
- PMID
- 2245744
- NLM abbreviation
- Child Dev
- ISSN
- 0009-3920
- eISSN
- 1467-8624
- Publisher
- Blackwell Publishing Ltd
- Number of pages
- 16
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/1990
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Injury Prevention Research Center
- Record Identifier
- 9984214747602771
Metrics
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