Kahl H B, Herman J F, Klein C A
J Exp Child Psychol. 1984 Aug;38(1):134-46. doi: 10.1016/0022-0965(84)90023-7.
Second graders (mean age = 7-8), fourth graders (mean age = 9-8), and sixth graders (mean age = 11-11) walked two paths located in and around their school. Children in the Unsegmented condition estimated the distance and time taken to walk a path that was relatively undifferentiated in terms of the number of qualitatively different areas of the school through which it passed. Children in the Segmented condition made the same estimates for a path that went through different areas (segments) of the school (i.e., cafeteria, hall, vestibule, and outside the building). Children at all three grade levels estimated that the distance traversed in the Segmented condition was longer than the distance in the Unsegmented condition. This difference was not significant on the time measure. It was concluded that (1) paths with a large number of segments are perceived as being longer than paths of the same length with fewer segments, (2) distances along paths with few segments are underestimated, (3) distances along paths with many segments may be overestimated as a function of developmental level, and (4) only younger children may have used time to estimate distance.
二年级学生（平均年龄7岁8个月）、四年级学生（平均年龄9岁8个月）和六年级学生（平均年龄11岁11个月）在他们学校及其周边走了两条路线。处于未分段条件下的儿童估计走过一条相对未分化的路线的距离和时间，这条路线穿过学校的不同区域，但在质量上没有明显差异。处于分段条件下的儿童对穿过学校不同区域（即自助餐厅、走廊、前厅和建筑物外）的路线进行了相同的估计。所有三个年级的儿童都估计，分段条件下走过的距离比未分段条件下的距离长。在时间测量上，这种差异并不显著。研究得出的结论是：（1）有大量段的路线比段数较少但长度相同的路线感觉更长；（2）段数少的路线的距离被低估了；（3）随着发育水平的不同，有许多段的路线的距离可能被高估；（4）只有年幼的儿童可能使用时间来估计距离。
