Bobrowicz Katarzyna, Weber Anke, Greiff Samuel
Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval, L-4365 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; Department of Psychology, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval, L-4365 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2024 Feb;238:105786. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105786. Epub 2023 Oct 10.
Using spatial cues such as shape, orientation, and pattern aids visuospatial working memory because it allows strategies that reduce the load on this cognitive resource. One such strategy, namely taking advantage of patterned spatial distributions, remains understudied to date. This strategy demands keeping track of already-searched locations and excluding them from further search and so correlates with visuospatial working memory. The use of such strategies should, in principle, develop in early childhood, but because most studies focus on chunking, the development of other strategies reducing the load on working memory is understudied in young children. Therefore, in this study we tested whether children aged 2 to 4.5 years (N = 97) could take advantage of spatial cues in their search and whether this ability correlated with their age, verbal ability, and visuospatial working memory. The results showed that the ability to use a patterned spatial distribution (searching a row of locations from one side to the other instead of a random search) significantly improved with visuospatial working memory but not with age or verbal ability. These results suggest that visuospatial abilities may rapidly develop from 2 to 4.5 years of age, and given their impact on later mathematic achievement, demand increased attention in cognitive developmental research and early childhood education.
利用形状、方向和图案等空间线索有助于视觉空间工作记忆，因为它允许采用减少这种认知资源负荷的策略。一种这样的策略，即利用有图案的空间分布，迄今为止仍未得到充分研究。这种策略需要追踪已经搜索过的位置，并将它们排除在进一步搜索之外，因此与视觉空间工作记忆相关。原则上，这种策略的使用应该在幼儿期发展起来，但由于大多数研究集中在组块上，其他减少工作记忆负荷的策略在幼儿中的发展尚未得到充分研究。因此，在本研究中，我们测试了2至4.5岁的儿童（N = 97）是否能够在搜索中利用空间线索，以及这种能力是否与他们的年龄、语言能力和视觉空间工作记忆相关。结果表明，利用有图案的空间分布（从一侧到另一侧搜索一排位置而不是随机搜索）的能力随着视觉空间工作记忆的提高而显著提高，但与年龄或语言能力无关。这些结果表明，视觉空间能力可能在2至4.5岁时迅速发展，鉴于它们对后期数学成绩的影响，需要在认知发展研究和幼儿教育中给予更多关注。
