Young Children's Representation of Locations in a Series: A Front-Back Representation or an Ordinal Representation?

front-back array intrinsic reference frame location encoding ordinal relation preschool children

Journal

Frontiers in psychology
ISSN: 1664-1078
Titre abrégé: Front Psychol
Pays: Switzerland
ID NLM: 101550902

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
2020
Historique:
received: 05 10 2019
accepted: 19 05 2020
entrez: 28 7 2020
pubmed: 28 7 2020
medline: 28 7 2020
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Previous research has found that 3-5-year-old children could encode and retrieve a target location in a two-location series. In a paradigm of running two symmetrical railcars on a circular track, the study suggested that children used front-back array to help coding. That is, children at this age code the railcar running in the front of another as "the location in the front" and the railcar running in the back of another as "the location in the back." However, the children's success could be attributed to an alternative interpretation; using an ordinal representation to encode the location in front as the first with the other as the second. The current study used a four-location series to examine the children's mental representation. Three- to five-year-old children participated in a hide-and-seek game to remember a target location out of four locations that moved in a series. The results showed salient individual differences in children's representation, and their performance improved as the representation progressed. An ordinal representation supported the precise encoding of each location, while a vague front-back representation and a clearer front-middle-back representation led to different performance.

Identifiants

pubmed: 32714236
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01327
pmc: PMC7340180
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

1327

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2020 Hu, Fu and Shao.

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Auteurs

Qingfen Hu (Q)

Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

Yuejia Fu (Y)

Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

Yi Shao (Y)

Department of Psychology, Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK, United States.

Classifications MeSH