Helmholtz Research Institute, Department of Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Dev Sci. 2010 Jan 1;13(1):170-80. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00870.x.
It has been suggested that learning an object's location relative to (1) intramaze landmarks and (2) local boundaries is supported by parallel striatal and hippocampal systems, both of which rely upon input from a third system for orientation. However, little is known about the developmental trajectories of these systems' contributions to spatial learning. The present study tested 5- and 7-year-old children and adults on a water maze-like task in which all three types of cue were available. Participants had to remember the location of an object hidden in a circular bounded environment containing a moveable intramaze landmark and surrounded by distal cues. Children performed less accurately than adults, and showed a different pattern of error. While adults relied most on the stable cue provided by the boundary, children relied on both landmark and boundary cues similarly, suggesting a developmental increase in the weighting given to boundary cues. Further, adults were most accurate in coding angular information (dependent on distal cues), whereas children were most accurate in coding distance, suggesting a developing ability to use distal cues to orient. These results indicate that children as young as 5 years use boundary, intramaze landmark, and distal visual cues in parallel, but that the basic accuracy and relative weighting of these cues changes during subsequent development.
有人认为，学习物体相对于（1）迷宫内地标和（2）局部边界的位置是由平行的纹状体和海马系统支持的，这两个系统都依赖于第三个系统的输入来定向。然而，对于这些系统在空间学习中的贡献的发展轨迹知之甚少。本研究在类似于水迷宫的任务中测试了 5 岁和 7 岁的儿童以及成年人，在这个任务中，所有三种类型的线索都可用。参与者必须记住隐藏在圆形边界环境中的物体的位置，该环境包含一个可移动的迷宫内地标，周围是远距离线索。儿童的表现不如成年人准确，并且表现出不同的错误模式。虽然成年人最依赖边界提供的稳定线索，但儿童对标尺和边界线索的依赖程度相似，这表明对边界线索的重视程度随着年龄的增长而增加。此外，成年人在编码角度信息（依赖于远距离线索）方面最为准确，而儿童在编码距离方面最为准确，这表明他们逐渐有能力使用远距离线索来定向。这些结果表明，即使是年仅 5 岁的儿童也可以并行使用边界、迷宫内地标和远距离视觉线索，但这些线索的基本准确性和相对权重在随后的发展过程中会发生变化。
