Collaborative Research: The Development of Spatial Coding

空间能力是所有移动生物的基本适应能力。成年人可以使用距离和方向信息来编码位置，无论是相对于自己还是相对于外部地标。它们的空间编码是分层的，即以各种嵌套的分辨率水平存在。此外，他们可以使用象征性的空间表征，最明显的是地图。这项研究将促进我们对人类婴儿期和儿童期空间能力发展的理解。先前的研究已经表明，到16个月大的时候，孩子们表现出空间位置的分层度量编码，但是，在大约21个月大的时候，在这种编码中，对远离观察者的外部地标的使用突然增加，并且，在童年中期，在更高层次编码中使用的类别的性质发生了变化。对婴儿的研究将确定度量编码是否在生命早期存在，如果存在，在这种编码中使用什么参考物，以及系统的分辨率是多少。对幼儿的研究将确定使用远端地标的发育变化是由于海马的成熟还是由于对直立行走的控制能力的增强，以及这个年龄段的儿童在一次隐藏多个物体时是否能够记住特定物体在特定位置的位置。对学龄儿童的研究将确定层次编码中使用的类别性质的发展变化是否会导致现实世界中空间定位准确性的变化。其他针对学龄前和学龄儿童的研究将描述儿童如何在地图表示中使用距离和方向信息。总体而言，本研究计划将进一步发展空间能力产生的模型。理解空间发展本身是一个重要的理论目标，但也对诸如为视障儿童提供流动性和促进所有儿童在空间学科（如几何和地理）方面的教育等重要的社会问题产生影响。＊＊＊

9631927 HUTTENLOCHER Spatial competence is a fundamental adaptive capability for all mobile organisms. Human adults can use distance and direction information to code location, both with respect to the self and with respect to external landmarks. Their spatial coding is hierarchical, i.e., existing at various nested levels of resolution. In addition, they can use symbolic spatial representations, most notably maps. This research will advance our understanding of how these aspects of spatial competence develop in human infancy and childhood. Previous studies have already shown that, by 16 months, children show hierarchical metric coding of spatial location, but that, at about 21 months, there is an abrupt increase in the use of external landmarks distant from the viewer in such coding, and that, over middle childhood, there are changes in the nature of the categories used in higher-level coding. Studies with infants will determine whether metric coding is present early in life, and if so, what referents are used in such coding, and what the resolution of the system is. Studies with toddlers will define whether the developmental changes in the use of distal landmarks are due to hippocampal maturation or to growing control of upright walking, and whether children of this age can remember the location of particular objects in particular locations when more than one is hidden at a time. Studies with school-age children will determine whether developmental changes in the nature of categories used in hierarchical coding underlie real-world changes in accuracy of spatial localization. Other studies with preschool and school-aged children will delineate how children use distance and direction information in map representations. Overall, this research program will develop further a model of the emergence of spatial competence. Understanding spatial development is an important theoretical goal in itself, but also has implications for such important societal issues as affording mobility to visually-impaired children and furthering the education of all children in spatial subjects such as geometry and geography. ***