Lourenco Stella F, Huttenlocher Janellen
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 S. University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Psychol Res. 2007 May;71(3):252-64. doi: 10.1007/s00426-006-0081-3. Epub 2006 Sep 16.
The study of spatial cognition has benefited greatly from a technique known as the disorientation procedure. This procedure was originally used with rats to show that they relied on the geometry of an enclosed space to locate a target hidden in that space. Disorientation has since been used with a variety of mobile animals, including human children, to examine the coding of geometric information. Here, we focus mostly on our recent work with young children. We examine a set of issues concerning reorientation--namely, the nature of geometric coding, the processes invoked by disorientation, and the developmental origins of using geometric information to determine location. We have employed a variety of methods to examine these issues; the methods include analyzing search behaviors, using spaces of different shapes, varying viewing position, and comparing different disorientation procedures. The implications for how children and nonhuman animals code geometric information are discussed.
空间认知的研究从一种被称为定向障碍程序的技术中受益匪浅。该程序最初用于大鼠，以表明它们依靠封闭空间的几何形状来定位隐藏在该空间中的目标。此后，定向障碍程序已被用于各种活动的动物，包括人类儿童，以研究几何信息的编码。在这里，我们主要关注我们最近与幼儿开展的工作。我们研究了一系列与重新定向有关的问题，即几何编码的本质、定向障碍引发的过程，以及利用几何信息确定位置的发展起源。我们采用了多种方法来研究这些问题；这些方法包括分析搜索行为、使用不同形状的空间、改变观察位置以及比较不同的定向障碍程序。文中还讨论了其对儿童和非人类动物如何编码几何信息的启示。
