Memory for Location: Changes over Learning and Development

我的钥匙呢？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体和地点的过程。这些经历突显了位置记忆对日常运作的重要性。那么，人们是如何记住东西在哪里的呢？其他研究表明，当人们试图找到丢失的物体(如他们的汽车钥匙)时，会回忆起几种类型的信息。他们可能会对存放钥匙的区域(在杂乱的厨房桌子上)记得一些相当笼统的东西。他们可能还记得一些更具体的东西，关于钥匙在桌子上的确切位置(靠近远处的边缘)。但人们实际上是如何将关于地区或地区的更一般的信息与关于距离和方向的更具体的信息结合在一起的，并不是很清楚。在国家科学基金会的支持下，朱迪·普卢姆特博士将进行基础研究，以更好地理解大脑如何将关于地点所属类别的信息(例如，区域或地区)与关于地点在类别中的位置(例如，距离和方向)相结合的发展变化，以得出位置的估计。通过使用让儿童更容易或更难记住度量和分类信息的技术，Plumert博士将观察儿童对这两类信息的依赖在发展过程中发生了怎样的变化。这项研究将加深我们对儿童和成年人如何解决记住东西在哪里的问题的理解，这是一项日常运作的基本技能。更广泛地说，这项研究将为地理教育领域提供新的见解，了解儿童如何将关于州等地理区域的信息与关于州内距离和方向的信息结合起来，以记住特定的位置(例如，州首府)。这项研究还将提供许多机会来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.