Abstract

Cognitive development studies how information processing in the brain changes over the course of development. A key part of this question is how information is represented and stored in memory. This study examined allocentric (world-based) spatial memory, an important cognitive tool for planning routes and interacting with the space around us. This is typically theorized to use multiple landmarks all at once whenever it operates. In contrast, here we show that allocentric spatial memory frequently operates over a limited spatial window, much less than the full proximal scene, for children between 3.5 and 8.5 years old. The use of multiple landmarks increases gradually with age. Participants were asked to point to a remembered target location after a change of view in immersive virtual reality. A k-fold cross-validation model-comparison selected a model where young children usually use the target location’s vector to the single nearest landmark and rarely take advantage of the vectors to other nearby landmarks. The comparison models, which attempt to explain the errors as generic forms of noise rather than encoding to a single spatial cue, did not capture the distribution of responses as well. Parameter fits of this new single- versus multi-cue model are also easily interpretable and related to other variables of interest in development (age, executive function). Based on this, we theorize that spatial memory in humans develops through three advancing levels (but not strict stages): most likely to encode locations egocentrically (relative to the self), then allocentrically (relative to the world) but using only one landmark, and finally, most likely to encode locations relative to multiple parts of the scene.

Highlights

  • Spatial cognition is a skill that humans and many other organisms employ almost constantly

  • Here we show that allocentric spatial memory frequently operates over a limited spatial window, much less than the full proximal scene, for children between 3.5 and 8.5 years old

  • Because human development is a long process, we have to understand and make decisions within the space around us for years before reaching full cognitive maturation. Potential applications such as screening and interventions to promote spatial-cognitive development during early childhood, which have been identified by educators as a major unfulfilled need [1], require a strong understanding of the typical structure of developing spatial cognition

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Summary

Introduction

Spatial cognition is a skill that humans and many other organisms employ almost constantly. Because human development is a long process, we have to understand and make decisions within the space around us for years before reaching full cognitive maturation Potential applications such as screening and interventions to promote spatial-cognitive development during early childhood, which have been identified by educators as a major unfulfilled need [1], require a strong understanding of the typical structure of developing spatial cognition. Previous developmental studies have asked which kinds of cues allow access to allocentric recall at different points in development (e.g. coincident cues [14], beacons [15], proximal landmarks [16, 17], distal landmarks [15, 16], salient landmarks [18], unstable landmarks [19], language [20, 21], transparent boundaries [22], and geometric relations [14, 23,24,25]) Another crucial way to subdivide allocentric reasoning is by the richness of the representation, remembering a target location relative to one landmark versus many. We present new data and new models to further probe a key question from previous work [21, 26,27,28,29,30]: do children use multiple landmarks to encode a target location allocentrically? How does this tend to change across development?

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