Understanding children's spatial abilities: Development of landmark use in orientation and wayfinding

To successfully navigate through our spatial surroundings, such as finding a
specific location and finding the way back to the home location, landmarks,
e.g. buildings can be helpful. Landmark knowledge is considered to be acquired
early when we first encounter a new environment. The herewith proposed research
will focus on how young children at different age groups learn and use
landmarks. Firstly, how are the identity and the location of a landmark
processed when viewing spatial scenes? Secondly, can landmarks be helpful for
orientation when the spatial surroundings change? The aim of this project is to
examine young infants* spatial abilities in particular the learning and
representation of landmark knowledge. The research will generate new insights
into the development of spatial knowledge in the first three years of life.
Particularly, the results will highlight the earliest developmental beginning
of understanding changes in location and identity of landmarks, as well as the
ability to use landmarks during orientation when environmental conditions
change. Results of the proposed research will increase our insight into the
emergence of spatial cognition an important issue throughout the life span.
This research will have an impact on education and practice in healthy
children, and might also add to our understanding of disorders characterized by
atypical spatial development (e.g., Williams syndrom).

To gain insight into the development of landmark use in young children

The study design will be an oddball paradigm in Experiment 1 and a passive
hide-and-seek task in Experiment 2

This study aims to investigate a research question from the area of
developmental psychology, and more specifically infant psychology. Necessarily,
the study involves infant participants. There are no known medical risks
associated with participation in this study.