Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States.
Adv Child Dev Behav. 2018;54:87-121. doi: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2017.10.007. Epub 2017 Dec 8.
Early in development infants form categorical representations of small-scale spatial relations, such as left vs right and above vs below. This spatial skill allows infants to experience coherence in the layout of the objects in their environment and to note the equivalence of a spatial relation across changes in objects. Comparisons across studies of infant spatial categorization offer insight into the processes that contribute to the development of this skill. Rather than viewing contrasting results across studies as contradictory, identifying how infant spatial categorization tasks recruit distinct processes can not only reconcile findings but also yield insight into the starting points, development, and emerging nature of infants' representations of spatial relations. Also, situating infants' spatial categorization in the context of advances in nonspatial domains may reveal synergistic relations among these domains, particularly in relation to advances in infants' manipulative play with objects and their acquisition of spatial language. A central argument is that broadening the study of infants' spatial categorization may yield further insights into the nature of early spatial concepts and the processes that promote their development.
在早期发展中，婴儿会形成小规模空间关系的范畴化表示，例如左与右、上与下。这种空间技能使婴儿能够体验到环境中物体布局的连贯性，并注意到物体变化中空间关系的等价性。对婴儿空间分类的研究进行比较，可以深入了解有助于发展这种技能的过程。与其将不同研究中的对比结果视为相互矛盾，不如确定婴儿空间分类任务如何招募不同的过程，这不仅可以调和研究结果，还可以深入了解婴儿对空间关系的代表的起点、发展和新兴本质。此外，将婴儿的空间分类置于非空间领域的进展背景下，可以揭示这些领域之间的协同关系，特别是在与婴儿对物体的操纵性游戏以及他们对空间语言的习得的进展有关时。一个核心论点是，拓宽对婴儿空间分类的研究可能会进一步深入了解早期空间概念的本质以及促进其发展的过程。
