Memory for Location: Changes over Learning and Development

我的钥匙在哪里？我怎么去你家？我们都经历过漫长而乏味的寻找难以找到的物品和地点的经历。这些经历强调了位置记忆对日常功能的重要性。那么人们是如何记住东西的位置的呢？其他研究表明，当人们试图找到丢失的东西（比如他们的车钥匙）时，他们会回忆起几种类型的信息。他们可能会记得一些关于钥匙所在区域（在凌乱的厨房桌子上）的大致信息。他们可能还记得一些更具体的东西，比如钥匙在桌子上的确切位置（靠近远端边缘）。但是，人们实际上是如何将有关区域或地区的更一般的信息与有关距离和方向的更具体的信息结合起来的，目前还没有得到很好的理解。关于儿童如何使用这两种类型的信息来记忆位置的发展变化，我们所知的就更少了。在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，Jodie Plumert博士将进行基础研究，以更好地理解大脑如何将关于位置所属类别的信息（例如，区域或地区）与关于位置在类别中的位置的信息（例如，距离和方向）结合起来，从而得出位置的估计。普卢默特博士将使用使儿童更容易或更难记住度量信息和分类信息的技术，观察儿童对这两种信息的依赖是如何随着发展而变化的。这项研究将增强我们对儿童和成人如何解决记忆事物位置的问题的理解，这是一项日常功能的基本技能。更广泛地说，这项研究将通过提供关于儿童如何将地理区域信息（如州）与州内距离和方向信息结合起来以记住特定位置（如州首府）的新见解，为地理教育领域提供信息。这项研究也将提供许多机会，以加强研究生和本科生的学习，开发新的设备和软件，并传播研究成果。

Where are my keys? How do I get to your house? We've all experienced long and tedious searches for hard-to-find objects and places. These experiences underscore how important memory for location is for everyday functioning. So how do people remember where things are? Other research has shown that people recall several types of information when trying to locate a missing object (like their car keys). They might remember something rather general about the area containing the keys (on a cluttered kitchen table). They might also remember something more specific about exactly where the keys are on the table (close to the far edge). But how people actually combine more general information about areas or regions with more specific information about distance and direction is not well understood. Even less is known about developmental changes in how children use these two types of information to remember locations.With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Jodie Plumert will conduct basic research to better understand developmental changes in how the mind combines information about the category to which a location belongs (e.g., area or region) with information about where the location is within the category (e.g., distance and direction) to arrive at estimates of location. Using techniques that make it easier or harder for children to remember metric and categorical information, Dr. Plumert will observe how children's reliance on these two types of information changes over development. This research will enhance our understanding of how children and adults solve the problem of remembering where things are, a skill fundamental to everyday functioning. More broadly, this research will inform the field of geographic education by providing new insights into how children combine information about geographic regions such as states with information about distance and direction within states to remember specific locations (e.g., state capitols). The research will also provide many opportunities to enhance graduate and undergraduate learning, develop new equipment and software, and disseminate research findings.