Two studies examined whether 4-year-olds' difficulty using relational information in spatial tasks was due, in part, to their inability to deal with situations where both objective and egocentric cues were available and pointed to different responses. Findings indicated that the presence of conflict significantly affected children's performance in…

In 3 studies, 2.5- and 3-year-olds transferred knowledge from an easy task that required appreciation of a symbolic relation to a more difficult task involving a symbolic relation that children their age typically do not appreciate. Results support the theory that young children use insight into one symbolic relation to understand other symbolic…

Spatial capacities of 36 children ages 5-6 were tested in 3 experiments involving an electronic maze, map training and testing, and finding the way out of a cave using a map. All subjects could use simple maps; this ability improved with age. However, no subject navigated the cave without help, perhaps because of stress or task complexity. (SV)

Adults, 9-year olds, and 5-year olds were shown horizontal and vertical lines of various sizes, presented on same wall or different walls, and asked to estimate corresponding area. Responses indicated that when width and height were separated, children gave same weight to both dimensions while adults gave greater weight to larger dimensions; when…

Examined whether 6.5- and 5.5-month-old infants believe, like 11-month-old infants, that a moving object's size affects how far a stationary object is displaced in a collision. After a habituation event, tests indicated that the 6.5-month-old infants and 5.5-month-old female infants believed the size of the moving object affected the collision…

Investigated preschoolers' responses to ambiguous descriptions of location. Ambiguous ("in one of the bags") descriptions caused longer search latencies in four- and five-year olds than nonambiguous descriptions ("in the bag by the chair"). The reverse was true for three-year olds. Results suggest that changes in information…

Based on stimulating findings suggesting that prenatal levels of steroids may influence cognitive functions, a study with N=40 healthy volunteers of both sexes was conducted. Prenatal levels of testosterone (T) were estimated by use of the second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) which is supposed to be controlled by the same genes involved in…

Play is children's work. Alice Honig enumerates from the heart 10 ways in which children learn through play, including building dexterity; social skills; cognitive and language skills; number and time concepts; spatial understanding; reasoning of cause and effect; clarification of pretend versus real; sensory and aesthetic appreciation; extended…

Fifth graders, ninth graders, college students, and persons over age sixty-five were given pencil-and-paper tasks in spatial development. Discusses results in terms of ecological validity, experience, and number of competing cues to be processed simultaneously. Used Piaget's formulation on adult cognitive development to explain elderly's…

The fact that males outperform females on specific spatial tests is not generally disputed, but the explanations for these differences are controversial. This paper highlights unresolved issues, such as definitions of space and measurement of abilities, and illustrates problems of interpretation of research regarding sex differences. (Author/HS)

This paper presents the results of a study of the structural development of young students' drawings of arrays, and in particular, the significance of using lines instead of drawing individual squares. Students' array drawings were classified on basis of numerical properties, and perceived structural similarities that reflected the spatial…

Witelson found that boys but not girls showed right-hemisphere specialization for tactile-spatial processing as early as six years. Witelson's task was administered to 46 normal four- and five-year olds. Both sexes showed right-hemisphere specialization. No sex differences appeared either in specialization or in overall performance. (Author/SJL)

Nonoperational first graders were taught Piaget's horizontality concept. In comparison to control subjects, training group subjects significantly increased correct responses, maintained their gains, and transferred their training from a straight-sided jar to a round-sided jar. (Author/DB)

A Piagetian task of spatial functioning and a modified classification problem (simple intersection) were administered to children to test the degree of relationship between logical and sublogical operations by defining their common cognitive components. (Author/DB)

Three experiments examined the early development of three- to five-year-old children's analysis of spatial patterns. Found that the youngest children segmented out simple, well-formed, spatially independent parts and used simple relational structures to bind these parts together, whereas older children constructed forms that included increasingly…