Smith Alastair D, Gilchrist Iain D, Cater Kirsten, Ikram Naimah, Nott Kylie, Hood Bruce M
Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK.
Cognition. 2008 Jun;107(3):1102-11. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.10.008. Epub 2007 Dec 11.
An influential series of studies have argued that young children are unable to use landmark information to reorient. However, these studies have used artificial experimental environments that may lead to an underestimation of the children's ability. We tested whether young children could reorient using landmarks in an ecologically valid setting. Children aged between 3 and 7 years completed a reorientation task in open parkland, and the properties of the search array (size and distinctiveness) were manipulated in a within-subjects design. Responses were recorded using Global Positioning Systems technology. All age groups performed above chance level, demonstrating that young children can reorient using natural landmarks. This behaviour was modulated by the nature of the search array: children were more accurate when the locations were spaced in a large array, and when the search locations were distinctively coloured. This suggests that the integration between landmarks and search locations, at different spatial scales, is a key factor in characterising human reorientation in the real world.
一系列有影响力的研究认为，幼儿无法利用地标信息来重新定向。然而，这些研究使用的是人工实验环境，这可能会导致对儿童能力的低估。我们测试了幼儿在生态有效环境中是否能够利用地标进行重新定向。3至7岁的儿童在开阔的公园完成了一项重新定向任务，搜索阵列的属性（大小和独特性）在被试内设计中进行了操控。使用全球定位系统技术记录反应。所有年龄组的表现均高于机遇水平，表明幼儿能够利用自然地标进行重新定向。这种行为受到搜索阵列性质的调节：当位置以大阵列排列时，以及当搜索位置有独特颜色时，儿童的表现更准确。这表明，在不同空间尺度上，地标与搜索位置之间的整合是表征现实世界中人类重新定向的关键因素。
