Development Of Spatial Concepts Research Articles

Spatial Images and Changes in their Graphic Representation in Primary and Lower Secondary School Students

Depiction of a geographical area through drawings is an individual ability,significantly variable over time. The essential development of such ability canprimarily be observed during the period starting from what is termed youngerschool age to the period of pubescence. This study presents the results of a researchfocused on monitoring the development of the ability of students aged between6 and 15 to reproduce their mental image of a well-known geographical area inthe form of a drawing (cognitive or mental map). The research was carried outby the method of analyzing the drawings of comparative mental maps producedby primary and lower secondary school students. The data obtained from theresearch were then statistically evaluated on the basis of selected criteria in orderto find identical or different stereotypes in the drawings. Research results point tothe existence of significant differences in the ability to graphically illustrate a wellknowngeographical space, reflecting, in particular, the age (or degree of experiencegained) and, to a lesser extent, the gender. Such findings are important from thepedagogical point of view, because the creation of graphic representation of a certainarea belongs to the basic geographical competencies of students.Keywords: drawing; mental map; perception of space; primary and lower secondaryschool; spatial concept development

СУБСТАНЦИИ КОМПОЗИТНОЙ ФОРМЫ

Architecture as a language of social communication embodies the artistic content in various forms that are associated with the organization of professional work. During the period of handicraft production, the architect-the main builder, expressed the cosmic harmony of the Universe made by the Creator. Being a designer, an architect expressed mathematical proportions in the composite forms of the building drawing. The division of labor in design led to the differentiation of the composite form into a functional form, compositional form and constructive form. Industrialization of design led a composite concept to the development of spatial concepts and the formation of an environmental approach. The development of formative thinking of the architect led to the creation of new innovative eco-friendly architectural materials. Unique manufacturing techniques allow to create perfect flatness and flexibility of composite materials associated with the absence of internal stress. This led to the creation of spatial structures without seams in different temperature and climatic conditions. The article systematizes professional design experience concentrated in the concept of composite form, calling the integrated, differentiated and multilayer superpositions of design graphics and the construction body.

Conceptos espaciales y nociones de lecto-escritura en preescolares con signos neurológicos blandos

La adquisición de los procesos cognoscitivos en los primeros años de vida muestra una relación estrecha con el desarrollo de habilidades motoras. En la etapa preescolar, el desarrollo de conceptos y las nociones de aprendizajes escolares como la lecto-escritura permiten conocer los procesos cognoscitivos de los niños. Se realizó una investigación descriptiva, observacional, transversal, con 30 niños preescolares (15 niñas y 15 niños) de la ciudad de Xalapa, Veracruz. Se evaluaron los conceptos espaciales y las nociones de lecto-escritura. Se documentaron los factores de riesgo y signos neurológicos blandos. Se encontraron asociaciones negativas entre los signos neurológicos blandos y las nociones de lecto-escritura, así como asociación positiva entre inteligencia verbal y la lecto-escritura. La evaluación de los procesos cognoscitivos de los niños preescolares y los signos neurológicos blandos favorecerá la implementación de adaptaciones en los métodos de enseñanza para los casos con indicadores clínicos de alteraciones sensoriales o motoras y desempeños deficientes en el lenguaje, conceptos espaciales y nociones de lecto-escritura.

Cross-cultural research on spatial concept development.

I will first review cross-cultural research in the area of culture and cognition, with particular focus on the development of spatial concepts. I propose that the formulation best covering all empirical data is in terms of «cognitive style», i.e., spatial cognitive processes are universally available to all humans, but there are preferences for some spatial frames of reference over others. These cultural differences are under the influence of a number of eco-cultural variables. The second part will illustrate this general conclusion by research on the development of the «geocentric» frame of spatial reference, initially studied by Levinson (Space in language and cognition: explorations in cognitive diversity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003). This is a cognitive style in which individuals choose to describe and represent small-scale tabletop space in terms of large-scale geographic dimensions. In Indonesia, India, Nepal and Switzerland, we explore the development with age of geocentric language as well as geocentric cognition, and the relationships between the two, as well as the environmental and socio-cultural variables that favor the use of this frame (Dasen and Mishra, Development of geocentric spatial language and cognition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010).

A methodological approach for holistic energy planning using the living lab concept: the case of the prefecture of Karditsa

The development of urban and rural landscapes has entered a pioneering era with novel combinations of energy production andconsumption and related changes in the urban and rural fabric including associated socioeconomic issues. Accompanying this change isa realization that newly developing energy initiatives are more viable for development and upscaling and are less vulnerable to failure andresistance from society if they are well integrated into their local and regional contexts. However, institutional questions remain regardingthe required mechanisms and levels of integration, while simultaneously sustainable energy planning requires that the stakeholders withdiverse and conflicting objectives come to some degree of consensus. Inspired by these findings, a methodological approach for holisticenergy planning on a regional/local level was developed within the framework of the INTENSSS-PA project that is funded by HORIZON2020. The approach provides a holistic energy plan, which goes beyond a blueprint for allocating renewable technologies and is basedon the involvement of the wider community. Hence, this approach includes aspects such as the development of spatial concepts, newco-creating strategies, business cases, societal alliances and institutional changes and formats. To implement this approach, the LivingLab (LL) concept is applied. The case of Karditsa, in Greece, will be presented as evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed planningapproach.

Linguistic Relativity and Spatial Concept Development in Nepal

Reports the results of a study done in a mountainous region of Nepal on a sample of 144, 6–14 year old boys and girls, schooled and unschooled. A variety of tasks was selected for the analysis of language children use for describing space and for the assessment of spatial encoding and cognitive performance on spatial developmental tasks. The results confirm that the language people use to describe spatial arrays is linked to the way in which they orient themselves in the environment. The age trends in language development indicate a change from intrinsic and projective to geocentric references, with almost no use of egocentric terms, while the encoding of spatial arrays is predominantly absolute (age changes being task specific). Overall, spatial cognitive development is quite independent of spatial encoding, but shows some statistically significant relations to the use of geocentric language.

Illusory tilt and Euclidean schemes as factors in performance on the water-level task.

The water-level task was designed by Piaget and Inhelder (1948/1956) as part of their investigation of children's development of spatial concepts. Children were typically shown a partially filled upright bottle and were then asked to predict the orientation of the liquid edge when the bottle was tilted. Even after observing a partially filled, rotating bottle, young children performed poorly on this task, often responding that the liquid edge would be in some nonhorizontal position. According to Piagetian theory, children were not able to predict the invariant horizontal position of the liquid because they had not yet developed a conceptual system of integrated horizontal and vertical coordinates with which to observe and represent the physical world. As it turns out, a large number of adults also have difficulty on paper-and-pencil versions of the water-level task (for reviews see Kalichman, 1988; Liben, 1991a; Pascual-Leone & Morra, 1991). Moreover, these adults, like the children observed by Piaget and Inhelder, appeared to be resistant to learning the water-level principle from visual observations of either dynamic (e.g., Liben, 1978) or static water-level displays (Thomas, Jamison, & Hummel, 1973). These findings are problematic for Piagetian theory because all normal adults should have a Euclidean conception of space.

Designing Logo-like Environments for Young Children: The Interaction between Theory and Practice

Recent Logo research documents young children's difficulties in learning Logo programming. This article describes a systematic approach to designing a series of increasingly complex Logo-like environments tailored to primary children. The approach involves a combination of theoretical principles related to cognitive development and practical considerations based on Logo research and classroom observations. The article first examines reports on difficulties encountered by young school children in learning the standard Logo language. A brief review of the psychological-cognitive literature on the development of spatial concepts is presented, shedding light on cognitive prerequisites of various Logo concepts and tasks. Based on these analyses, a methodology for the design of a graduated series of Pre-Logo Microworlds for young children is presented. These microworlds include cognitive scaffolding features such as graphic utilities and measurement tools designed to facilitate the acquisition of mathematical-spatial and programming concepts. The article concludes with a description of findings related to a) field-testing of the series in elementary classrooms and subsequent revisions of the series, and b) experimental results pertaining to children's acquisition of programming and mathematical-spatial concepts and transfer effects.

Vibrotactile Stimulation: An Educational Program for Spatial Concept Development

The potential of vibrotactile stimulation to enrich the perceptual world of congenitally and early blinded children was evaluated through an educational program developed to introduce spatial concepts typically associated with visual perception. The vibrotactile device used was a modified Optacon of Telesensory Systems, Incorporated. The program was evaluated using 30 blind children, ranging in age from 8 to 14 years, who possessed no more than minimal light perception. It has been suggested that vibrotactile stimulation is perceptually informative and could serve congenitally and early blinded children as a potential basis for an extended understanding of three-dimensional space.

Understanding turn commands in Logo: A cognitive perspective

When learning to program in Logo, many young children experience difficulties using the right and left turn commands. This paper looks at the spatial concepts required for the understanding and manipulation of these commands. We begin by providing an overview of research on children's Logo learning and point to specific problems children have with right and left commands and to related characteristics of standard Logo systems that seem to contribute to these problems. To shed further light on the source of these problems, the psychological-cognitive literature on the development of spatial concepts concerned with the use of frames of reference and obliques is reviewed. It is argued that in order for children to handle meaningful programming projects they need to master a set of prerequisite skills. These skills, involving the development of elaborated and explicated spatial concepts, include a distinction between right and left, the intentional reference to the Turtle as a frame of reference, the assignment of appropriate axes and the application of units of measurement for determining distance and angles. We conclude by suggesting that children need to be exposed to Logo programs designed to facilitate the development of spatial concepts which would enable the successful progression to more complex Turtle Geometry programming tasks.

The relationship of spatial concept development to the acquisition of locative understanding.

A cross-sectional study of children in the preoperational period was conducted to investigate the potential constraints of spatial concept development on children's understanding of spatial prepositions. A battery of Piagetian tasks and a locative comprehension measure were administered to 60 children, ranging in age from 2 to 7 years. In general, children were functioning in Stage II on the Piagetian spatial tasks before they comprehended the prepositions, in front of and behind, in terms of their own perspective using nonfronted objects. The findings also indicated that the children were functioning in Stage III--i.e., they had projective/Euclidean understanding--before they could comprehend in front of and behind when these terms involved projective/Euclidean spatial notions. The majority of children accounted for the front/back features of the object in placing an object in front of or behind a fronted object. The results suggest that as the child's conception of space changes, his comprehension of spatial prepositions also changes.

Position and orientation features and the development of spatial concepts.

Position and orientation features and the development of spatial concepts.

Interpretation of the Spatial Prepositions 'in front of' and 'behind'

Children aged 4 to 9 years and adults were asked to place a cube or a ball 'in front of or 'behind' a featuredor a nonfeatured-object. Although most children and adults responded on the basis of the inherent features of the object, a significant number of adults responded to the observer orientation cue. As expected, the nonfeatured-object task was difficult for the children, but they did not respond randomly; like the adults, most of them used the observer orientation cue. The results were discussed with reference to an analogy with over-extensions resulting from a child's unfamiliarity with linguistic alternatives, Piaget's theory of the development of spatial concepts, and the preferred explanation of responses determined by a prominent cue masking competing cues.

Revision and Validation of a Test for Assessing the Spatial Conceptual Abilities of Visually Impaired Children

The purpose of the investigation described in this article was to revise Hill's test for assessing the development of spatial concepts among visually impaired children, “Concepts Involved in Body Position and Space,” establish the test's validity and reliability, and collect normative data. Orientation and mobility specialists administered the revised instrument to 273 visually impaired children ages 6 through 10 from 48 different educational programs in 23 states. Normative data were then collected in the form of percentiles by age; percentage passing each item by age and by reading modes; and indexes for the difficulty and discriminatory power of each item as well as the proportion of correct answers. According to the results, the revised instrument is valid and reliable enough to use with visually impaired children in the age groups studied.

Development of spatial concepts in visually deprived children.

110 blind children in Grades 2 through 12 were matched with sighted controls for age, sex, and verbal reasoning ability. Spatial reasoning was compared with nonspatial reasoning ability for the two groups. At each age level, blind children were inferior to sighted children on spatial reasoning, although the two groups did not differ on nonspatial reasoning. Data further support the likelihood that certain interactions with the perceptual environment may be crucial to specific aspects of cognitive functioning in humans.