Investigates the ability of four-, five-, and six-year-olds to locate their starting point and retrieve an immobilized object after being blindfolded and moved. Results indicate that, while children as young as four years can coordinate an initial egocentrated target location with what they believe to be their starting point, computation of the…

The role of the spatial relationship between target responses and reinforcers in the discrimination learning of six mentally retarded adults was evaluated. Results showed that discrimination performance was more efficient in the experimental condition (reinforcement located near the correct cue) than the control condition (reinforcement in common…

Deficits in spatial abilities, particularly Mental Rotation (MR), may contribute to women's avoidance of areas of study (such as chemistry) that rely on MR. Those women who do succeed in chemistry may do so because they have MT skills that are on par with their male peers. We examined MR ability on 12 items from the Vandenberg and Kuse MR test…

Two experiments tested the effectiveness of familiar size as information for perceiving distance. In the first experiment, under monocular viewing conditions, adults judged the distances to large and small photographs of faces and to large and small checkerboard ovals equal to the faces in size. In the second, the same displays were presented to…

Children completed a perspectives task involving before-behind and left-right relationships, in which two-dimensional arrays were used to eliminate masking effects that might facilitate the task. The results suggested that children perform equally well on each type of spatial relationship. (Author/MJL)

Argues for a multilevel format of written communication that presents ideas in a typographical format allowing the reader to easily choose alternative paths through the material. (HOD)

Eight spatial tests assembled with a mapping sentence of four content facets (rule type, dimensionality, presence or absence of rotation, and test format) were administered to 800 individuals. Smallest Space Analysis of an intercorrelation matrix yielded three facets which formed distinct regions in a two-dimensional projection of a…

Compared to normal readers, the dyslexic children not only drew significantly more "neolithic faces" but also made more errors of spatial displacement (up/down or right/left) on parts of asymmetric figures, while among both groups there were similar percentages who made no errors in the global rotation of figures. (Author/SJL)

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)

The processes by which children construct images of anticipated end states of a transposition movement were examined on two tasks. Results support Piaget's (1977) hypothesis that reasoning on the basis of state correspondence defines a developmental level which precedes the development of transformational thought. (Author/MP)

Investigated the ability of preschool and early grade school children to use logical search strategies to find a missing object on a familiar playground. Results indicated that children of all ages studied could deduce a critical search area and were not guided primarily by strong spatial associations. (Author/DB)

The locative categories--"in,""above,""below," and "beside"--were investigated to determine whether their exemplars were organized according to the prototype distinction. (RH)

Accuracy of pattern copying was studied in male and female 10-year-olds. Contrary to expectations, independent of the stimulus size, males benefited from spatial response cues whereas females did not. (Author/DB)

Learning disabled (LD) and nondisabled (ND) students (N=128) at four grade levels (1, 3, 5, and 7) were compared on 10 measures of figural and verbal creativity. Originality was greater for the LD children at all grade levels, while elaboration was greater for the ND children at all grade levels. (Author/PHR)

Investigates spatial orientation of infants, comparing behavior in the laboratory to behavior in the infant's home. Also investigates whether the infant relies on his body as a spatial reference system. (Author/SS)