Absent reference comprehension is a critical achievement of early development, yet little is known about its emergence. In the current study, 12- and 16-month-old infants' recognition of properties of mentioned absent things was used as an index of absent reference comprehension. Infants were presented with displays matching the color and prior…

Geographic information literacy (GIL) is defined as the possession of concepts, abilities and habits of mind that allow an individual to understand and use geographic information properly. This paper reports the results of an online survey undertaken to get expert input into specifying the concepts and abilities associated with GIL that should be…

InterActive Physiology (IAP) is one of a new generation of anatomy and physiology learning aids with a broader range of sensory inputs than is possible from a static textbook or moderately dynamic lecture. This best-selling software has modules covering the muscular, respiratory, urinary, cardiovascular, and nervous systems plus a module on fluids…

Current theories of environmental cognition typically differentiate between an online, transient, and dynamic system of spatial representation and an offline and enduring system of memory representation. Here the authors present additional evidence for such 2-system theories in the context of the disorientation paradigm introduced by R. F. Wang…

How long does it take to form a durable representation in visual working memory? Several theorists have proposed that this consolidation process is very slow. Here, we measured the time course of consolidation. Observers performed a change-detection task for colored squares, and shortly after the presentation of the first array, pattern masks were…

The influences of domain-specific meteorological knowledge and general visual-spatial abilities on the comprehension of simple weather maps were examined in a regression-based study involving a sample of participants with relatively low meteorological knowledge and in an experiment involving a contrast between samples of higher- and…

Young infants have repeatedly been shown to be slower than older infants to shift fixation from a midline stimulus to a peripheral stimulus. This is generally thought to reflect maturation of the neural substrates that mediate the disengagement of attention, but this developmental difference may also be attributable to young infants' slower…

This research paper reports on testing the hypothesis that music and spatial task performance are causally related. Two complementary studies are presented that replicate and explore previous findings. One study of college students showed that listening to a Mozart sonata induces subsequent short-term spatial reasoning facilitation and tested the…

This book presents games for children, teenagers, and adults, explaining how each game can help children develop in a holistic way. It begins by discussing tips for teaching games, how to deal with children who break the rules, and what type of equipment to use. The book provides help on how to approach play within each of the different age…

Finding the number of cubes in rectangular solids provides a cognitive framework for understanding the measurement of volume. This study reveals whether the activities provided in the context of equal investing and equal sharing that emphasize both numerical and spatial aspects of cube configurations cause any improvement in student strategies…

The role of block building in children's learning was studied by a student teacher who observed a teacher's block building curriculum in a combined first and second grade class. The purpose was to clarify the linkage between thinking and doing, spoken intention and actual consequences, and planning and spontaneity in the curriculum. The cycle of…

There is a growing awareness among researchers that the magnitude of cognitive sex differences is affected by a number of subject variables. To examine spatial and verbal cognitive sex differences as a function of personal and family handedness, the 478 offspring who participated in the Minnesota family study and 454 offspring who participated in…

This study concerns children's understanding of spatial relationships and their expression in drawings and photographs. Sixty children (ages 5, 8, and 11) were asked to discriminate and reproduce three types of depth relationships in either drawings or photographs: enclosure, where a larger object is placed directly behind a smaller object;…

Prepositions appear to be especially susceptible to misunderstanding by second language learners. Even upper-intermediate and advanced learners may have ingrained misconceptions. A proposed method for re-teaching prepositions to students at all levels is based on three ideas: (1) prepositions are spatial; (2) they are frequently used…

In an examination of the acquisition of the spatial syntax of American Sign Language (ASL), 43 children aged 3-10 years were given a range of comprehension and elicitation tests designed to analyze the subsystems involved in the corrrect use of ASL syntax. The subsystems were nominal establishment, verb agreement, and consistency of reference. The…