This study tested a dynamic field theory (DFT) of spatial working memory and an associated spatial precision hypothesis (SPH). Between 3 and 6 years of age, there is a qualitative shift in how children use reference axes to remember locations: 3-year-olds' spatial recall responses are biased toward reference axes after short memory delays, whereas…

D. R. Proffitt and colleagues (e. g., D. R. Proffitt, J. Stefanucci, T. Banton, & W. Epstein, 2003) have suggested that objects appear farther away if more effort is required to act upon them (e.g., by having to throw a ball). The authors attempted to replicate several findings supporting this view but found no effort-related effects in a variety…

It has become increasingly common for theories to rely on a constraint that 1 object cannot be in more than 1 place at the same time. Analysis suggests that a 1 object--1 place--1 time constraint as literally stated is false, that a modified constraint is biased toward the visual modality, that it may not be a correct description of the physical…