Fundamental to amassing a lexicon of relational terms (i.e., verbs, prepositions) is the ability to abstract and categorize spatial relations such as a figure (e.g., "boy") moving along a path (e.g., "around" the barn). Three studies examine how infants learn to categorize path over changes in "manner," or how an action is performed (e.g., running…

Found that preschool children can form abstract concepts of left and right which are not bound to the specific training context: children were able to generalize to new figures and to new spatial locations. The nature of the preschool child's left-right judgments is discussed. (Author/RH)

Four experiments investigated three- and four-year-old children's knowledge of projective size-distance and projective shape-orientation relationships. Results indicated that preschool children's understanding of these relationships seems at least partly cognitive rather than wholly perceptive, providing further evidence for the acquisition of…

Investigated the interpretation of the word "big" by 40 children of 3 to 5 years. The type and orientation of objects used in the study were varied. Results demonstrated that contextual factors influenced children's responses. (RJC)

Two experiments explored how infants learn to form an abstract categorical representation of support (i.e., on) when habituated to few (i.e., 2) or many (i.e., 6) examples of the relation. When habituated to 2 pairs of objects in a support relation, 14-month-olds, but not 10-month-olds, formed the abstract spatial category (i.e., generalized the…

Two studies of development of spatial representation with two dimensions found that children as young as five years use the same two independent dimensions in fine-grained spatial coding of location in a circle as adults use--radius and angle. The adult pattern, where angle as well as radius is coded hierarchically, emerges by nine years. (HTH)

Reanalyzes data from a study in which 42 fifth graders received training in map-drawing skills. Explores the relationship between the mixture of reasoning levels and developmental change, and compares findings with those of an earlier study of social reasoning. (CB)