Graphic symbols as "the mind on paper": links between children's interpretive theory of mind and symbol understanding

Children gradually develop interpretive theory of mind (iToM)—the understanding that different people may interpret identical events or stimuli differently. The present study tested whether more advanced iToM underlies children’s recognition that map symbols’ meanings must be communicated to others when symbols are iconic (resemble their referents). Children (6–9 years; N = 80) made maps using either iconic or abstract symbols. After accounting for age, intelligence, vocabulary, and memory, iToM predicted children’s success in communicating symbols’ meaning to a naïve map‐user when mapping tasks involved iconic (but not abstract) symbols. Findings suggest children’s growing appreciation of alternative representations and of the intentional assignment of meaning, and support the contention that ToM progresses beyond mastery of false belief.     

Children's use of frames of reference in communication of spatial location

The frames of reference used by 4-, 6-, and 8-year-old children were studied in a spatial direction-giving task. Children were asked to specify verbally the location of a toy hidden under one of several identical cups. The child and listener sat facing each other at opposite ends of a room that had distinctive or nondistinctive landmarks proximal and distal to the hiding location. Location needed to be specified with respect to either the left-right dimension, the front-back dimension, or both. The results indicated that (1) although children's overall performance improved with age, communication about the left-right dimension was particularly difficult for 4-year-old children and showed a higher rate of improvement with age than communication about the front-back dimension; and (2) the frames of reference that children incorporated into their directions changed with age and differed for directions about the front-back and left-right dimensions. Both 4- and 6-year-old children used person references (themselves or the listener) to specify front-back relations, but only the 6-year-olds were able to compensate for their apparent difficulty in using the terms left and right by using landmarks to specify the left-right dimension. Eight-year-olds used a combination of person and landmark references in directions about both dimensions. Discrepancies between the frames of reference children used to communicate spatial location and those typically used in other spatial cognition tasks are discussed in terms of developmental and task constraints.     

Environmental‐Scale Map Use in Middle Childhood: Links to Spatial Skills,Strategies, and Gender

Researchers have shown that young children solve mapping tasks in small spaces, but have rarely tested children's performance in large, unfamiliar environments. In the current research, children (9–10 years; N = 40) explored an unfamiliar campus and marked flags' locations on a map. As hypothesized, better performance was predicted by higher spatial‐test scores, greater spontaneous use of map–space coordinating strategies, and participant sex (favoring boys). Data supported some but not all hypotheses about the roles of specific spatial skills for mapping performance. Data patterns were similar on a computer mapping task that displayed environmental‐scale videos of walks through a park. Patterns of children's mapping errors suggested both idiosyncratic and common mapping strategies that should be addressed in future research and educational interventions.     

First- and second-order configural sensitivity for greeble stimuli in baboons

Previous studies on nonhuman primates have shown inconsistencies in their processing of first- and secondorder relational properties of facial stimuli. Using greeble stimuli sharing configural properties with faces, this study assessed configural processing in baboons. Five baboons were trained to recognize a positive stimulus among pairs of greebles in a two-alternative forced choice task. They were then tested with new stimulus pairs involving either a first-order version, with modifications in global qualitative spatial relations, or a second-order version, with modifications of finer spatial relations. Performance remained above chance in all test conditions, including when only second-order cues were available, but it was higher for first-order trials. It is proposed that an extensive training with greebles led to the processing of second-order relational properties. These results demonstrate that configural sensitivity is not restricted to faces in baboons and suggest that a common mechanism may support configural processing for face and nonface stimuli.     

Age-Related Effects of Study Time Allocation on Memory Performance in a Verbal and a Spatial Task

Past studies have suggested that study time allocation partially mediates age relations on memory performance in a verbal task. To identify whether this applied to a different material modality, participants ages 20-87 completed a spatial task in addition to a traditional verbal task. In both the verbal and the spatial task, increased age was associated with poorer utilization of study time, suggesting that age differences in study time allocation are qualitatively similar across material modality. Furthermore, age differences in how individuals allocated their study time partially mediated the age relations on memory performance in both tasks, indicating the importance of effective regulation of study time when learning information. Finally, age differences in study time allocation did not appear to be due to differences in awareness of performance. When a subset of participants was asked about their prior performance, awareness of previous performance was not associated with study time allocation on either task. Interestingly, asking participants about their prior performance tended to decrease recall performance. Overall, these results illustrate that how one allocates study time is related to subsequent memory performance in both a verbal and spatial modality, but knowledge about prior performance is not associated with study time utilization, and inquiring about past performance during study may disrupt rather than facilitate learning.     

Age-Related Effects of Study Time Allocation on Memory Performance in a Verbal and a Spatial Task

Past studies have suggested that study time allocation partially mediates age relations on memory performance in a verbal task. To identify whether this applied to a different material modality, participants ages 20–87 completed a spatial task in addition to a traditional verbal task. In both the verbal and the spatial task, increased age was associated with poorer utilization of study time, suggesting that age differences in study time allocation are qualitatively similar across material modality. Furthermore, age differences in how individuals allocated their study time partially mediated the age relations on memory performance in both tasks, indicating the importance of effective regulation of study time when learning information. Finally, age differences in study time allocation did not appear to be due to differences in awareness of performance. When a subset of participants was asked about their prior performance, awareness of previous performance was not associated with study time allocation on either task. Interestingly, asking participants about their prior performance tended to decrease recall performance. Overall, these results illustrate that how one allocates study time is related to subsequent memory performance in both a verbal and spatial modality, but knowledge about prior performance is not associated with study time utilization, and inquiring about past performance during study may disrupt rather than facilitate learning.     

Imagining a way out of the gravity bias: preschoolers can visualize the solution to a spatial problem

Can young children visualize the solution to a difficult spatial problem? Forty‐eight 3‐year‐olds were tested in a spatial reasoning paradigm in which they were asked to predict the path of a ball moving through 1 of 3 intertwined tubes. One group of children was asked to visualize the ball rolling down the tube before they made their predictions, a second group was given identical instructions without being asked to use visual imagery, and a third group was given no instructions. Children in the visualization condition performed significantly better than those in the other conditions, suggesting that encouraging young children to use visual imagery may help them to reason through difficult problems.     

Reconceptualizing perceptual development: The identification of some dimensions of spatial competence in young children

In this examination of young children's acquisition of geometric skills, spatial performances were conceptualized as specific combinations of actions applied within stimulus contexts. Since both actions and context can vary, a number of different combinations can be specified. In this study, the relationships among eight such combinations were examined and predicted patterns compared with observed ones. Fifty-four 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children were presented with 24 geometric displays depicting a variety of geometric relations. Subjects were required to either match or recall the displays in both a reconstruction and a recognition task format thereby responding across different types of action demands. The geometric displays depicted information organized either around a single axis (horizontal or vertical) or around both axes, the variation in context. The results of a mixed design ANOVA revealed a good fit with the hypothesized predictions. The findings are discussed in terms of the development of spatial skills, information theory, and of skill generalization.     

Object Properties and Knowledge in Early Lexical Learning

The ease with which young children learn object nouns suggests that they possess strategies to identify properties critical to lexical category membership. In previous work, young children used a same-shape criterion to extend new count nouns. The present research tested the generality of this shape bias. 2- and 3-year-olds were asked either to extend a novel count noun to new instances, or to choose unnamed objects to go together. The objects varied in shape, size, and texture. For half of the subjects, the objects had eyes--a property strongly associated with certain material kinds. If young children know this association, they should attend to texture as well as shape in classifying objects with eyes. With named objects only, both 2- and 3-year-old children classified eyeless objects by shape and objects with eyes by both shape and texture. The results suggest that very young children possess considerable knowledge about conditional relations between kinds of perceptual properties. Knowledge of such conditional relations may aid children in forming new categories and thus in discovering new word meanings.     

The role of intentionality and iconicity in children's developing comprehension and production of cartographic symbols

The contribution of intentionality understanding to symbolic development was examined. Actors added colored dots to a map, displaying either symbolic or aesthetic intentions. In Study 1, most children (5–6 years) understood actors' intentions, but when asked which graphic would help find hidden objects, most selected the incorrect (aesthetic) one whose dot color matched referent color. On a similar task in Study 2, 5- and 6-year-olds systematically picked incorrectly, 9- and 10-year-olds picked correctly, and 7- and 8-year-olds showed mixed performance. When referent color matched neither symbolic nor aesthetic dot colors, children performed better overall, but only the oldest children universally selected the correct graphic and justified choices with intentionality. Results bear on theory of mind, symbolic understanding, and map understanding.     

Roots and patterns in Hebrew language development: evidence from written morphological analogies

Morphology is one of the organizing principles of the mental lexicon. It is especially important in Hebrew, where word structure expresses a rich array of semantic notions. This study investigated the ability of Hebrew-speaking children to solve written morphological analogies by reading and completing two sets of real and invented root- and pattern-related nouns using a closed set of responses. In the first experiment, 152 gradeschoolers (2nd–6th grade) were administered an analogy task with real words, where they had to read written stimuli and elicit root and pattern components from them. In the second experiment, 148 gradeschoolers were administered a similar reading task with pseudowords. In both experiments, the results clearly indicate an early and robust ability of Hebrew-speaking children to perform morphological analogies using both roots and patterns. Most errors involved the root morpheme rather than the pattern morpheme, but pseudowords elicited more pattern errors. These results are discussed in view of models of morphological processing and morpho-lexical development in Hebrew.     

Problem solving, recall, and mapping relations in isomorphic transfer and nonisomorphic transfer among preschoolers and elementary school children

Analogical problem-solving processes were studied in 4 experiments using 5- and 7-move scheduling problems. Subjects were preschool and elementary school children. On each acquisition trial, the child heard a list of statements representing the exact series of moves necessary to solve the problem and was immediately asked to recall the list. Physical materials representing the problem were then produced and the child was asked to solve it. In transfer only setting/constraint information was provided prior to problem solving. In the first study, mapping processes were explored in nonisomorphic transfer tasks with different constraints and problem spaces. Mapping processes were very good, except when a feature of the base was mapped to a misleading cue in the transfer problems. The second study revealed that combining the problem-solving task with the recall task facilitated isomorphic transfer but not nonisomorphic transfer. The 2 remaining studies revealed that preschool children show excellent isomorphic transfer in both 5- and 7-move problems. The major developmental difference was in how the children ordered the propositions in their recall protocols. The findings were discussed in terms of problem spaces, flexibility of transfer, and developmental theory.     

The development of relational landmark use in six- to twelve-month-old infants in a spatial orientation task

The ability to use the relations between visible landmarks to locate nonvisible goals (allocentric spatial coding) underlies success on a variety of everyday spatial orientation problems. Little is known about the development of true relational coding in infancy. Ninety-six 6-, 8.5- and 12-month-old infants were observed in a peekaboo paradigm in which they had to turn to a target location after displacement to a novel position and direction of facing. In a landmark condition, the target position was located between two landmarks, contrasted with a control condition in which no distinctive landmarks were provided. Six-month-old infants performed poorly in both conditions, 8.5-month-olds were significantly better with the landmarks, and 12-month-olds solved the task with or without landmarks. A follow-up study confirmed that the 8.5-month-olds used both landmarks to solve the task. This demonstration of allocentric spatial coding in 8.5-month-old infants shows earlier competence than that found in previous work in which only infants at the end of the first year were able to use landmarks relationally.     

Elemental versus configural perception in a people-present/people-absent discrimination task by pigeons

In the present experiment, we investigated whether pigeons rely exclusively on elemental information or whether they are also able to exploit configural information in apeople-present/people-absent discrimination task. Six pigeons were trained in a go/no-go procedure to discriminate between 800 color photographs characterized by the presence or absence of people. Thepeople-present stimuli were designated as positive, and thepeople-absent stimuli were designated as negative. After training and a subsequent generalization test, the pigeons were presented with both familiar and novel people-present stimuli containing human figures that were distorted in one of seven different ways. All the pigeons learned the initial discrimination and also showed generalization to novel stimuli. In the subsequent test, performance on all types of distorted stimuli was diminished in comparison with that on the intact original pictures from which they had been derived. At the same time, however, peck rates clearly exceeded the level of responding found for regular people-absent stimuli. This result strongly suggests that responding was controlled by both the constituting target components and their spatial relations and, therefore, points to the dual importance of elemental and configural information.     

Social marking of cognitive operations. The effect of different social rules

The present study is concerned with assessing whether social marking (i.e. the correspondence between the correct solution of a task and some known social rule) is a mechanism of cognitive progress which depends on specific forms of rule represented in the task material. Results of an experiment on a spatial transformation task (N=sixty-four non-conserving 5–6-year-olds) showed no significantly different levels of cognitive progress for subjects who transformed the spatial arrangement of a classroom or of a theatre. Significant difference emerged only when a deviation from the normally regulated arrangement were represented. In the condition where the deviation concerned the theatre subjects showed the lower level of progress. It was concluded that the beneficial effect of social marking may depend on the form of rule represented. Results were discussed with respect to children’s knowledge of the relative alterability of different types of rules.     

First Contact in Verb Acquisition: Defining a Role for Syntax

The goal of this research was to address 2 questions regarding children's use of syntactic information in acquiring verbs: First, what are children's biases for actions in the absence of syntactic information; and second, how specific is the meaning derived for verbs when syntactic information is present? In 3 experiments we presented nonsense verbs either in syntactic isolation (e.g., "Look! Sebbing!") or embedded within a transitive syntactic frame (e.g., "The frog is sebbing the duck"). These actions were then separated, and the children (mean age = 2 years, 3 months) were asked to select the action which was the referent of the verb. In Experiment 1, Causative actions (in which 1 character forces another to move in some way) were paired with Synchronous actions (in which both characters move simultaneously). In Experiment 2, the same Synchronous actions were now paired with Contact actions (in which 1 character merely touches the other). In Experiment 3, the Contact actions were paired with Causative ones. 2 results emerged: (1) Children have identifiable action biases in the absence of syntactic information and (2) these biases can be shifted by the addition of a transitive syntactic frame. We conclude that the meaning derived from the transitive frame is not specifically Causative or Contact but, more generally, a sense that 1 character is affecting another.     

Common coding in pigeons: Partial versus total reversals of one-to-many conditional discriminations

Common coding in pigeons was examined using a delayed conditional discrimination in which each sample stimulus was associated with two different comparison stimuli (one-to-many mapping). In Experiment 1, pigeons matched circle and dot samples to red and green hues and vertical and horizontal line orientations. In Experiment 2, the samples were red and green and the comparisons were vertical and horizontal spatial positions (up vs. down and left vs. right). Following acquisition to high levels of accuracy in each experiment, the associations between the samples and either both sets or only one set of comparisons were reversed. Pigeons learned the total reversals faster than the partial reversals. These results suggest that when different comparisons are associated with a common sample, they may become functionally equivalent.     

Preschoolers' Understanding of Plan and Oblique Maps: The Role of Geometric and Representational Correspondence

To study conditions that affect preschoolers' understanding of maps, we asked 4-and 5-year-olds to place stickers on classroom maps to show locations of objects currently in view. Varied were vantage point (eye level vs. raised oblique), map form (plan vs. oblique), and item type (floor vs. furniture locations). Even though they were working with maps of a familiar referent space, preschoolers evidenced difficulty. While an oblique vantage point did not enhance performance, using the oblique map first aided subsequent performance on the plan map. As predicted, performance on floor locations was worse than on furniture locations. Findings are discussed in relation to performance by adults given the mapping task and preschoolers given a nonreferential sticker placement task. Data suggest the importance of ( a ) iconicity and ( b ) studying geometric as well as representational correspondences in map research.     

Children''s Awareness of the Biological Implications of Kinship

Preschoolers' thinking about kinship was explored by means of a simple induction task. A target animal was described as possessing a property, and children were asked whether each of 2 other animals shares the property or not. When no information about kinship was given, children in Experiment 1 based their inductions of biological properties on physical similarity. However, when kinship relations were specified, children judged that dissimilar-looking kin share more biological properties than similar-looking but unrelated members of the same species. In Experiment 2, describing the similar animals as socially related did not change the basic pattern of inductions obtained in the first experiment. Moreover, subjects in Experiment 3 did not induce more acquired physical and psychological properties among families than among unrelated animals. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 illustrate one case where young children favor a nonperceptible relation (kinship) over a perceptible one (similarity) as a basis for judgment. The overall pattern of data suggest that young children distinguish to some extent between the biological and social domains.     

Lexical Principles May Underlie the Learning of Verbs

To examine whether children (mean age 34 months) can fast map and extend novel action labels to actions for which they do not already have names, the comprehension of familiar and novel verbs was tested using colored drawings of Sesame Street characters performing both familiar and unfamiliar actions. Children were asked to point to the character "verbing," from among sets of 4 drawings. With familiar words and actions, children made correct choices 97% of the time. With novel action words, children performed at levels mostly significantly above chance, selecting a previously unlabeled action or another token of a just-names action. In a second, control experiment children were asked to select an action from among the same sets of 4 drawings, but they were not given a novel action name. Here children mainly demonstrated performance at levels not significantly different from chance, showing that the results from the main experiment were attributable to the presence of a word in the request. Results of these studies are interpreted as support for the availability of principles to ease verb acquisition.