Developing symbolic capacity one step at a time.
The present research examines the ability of children as young as 4 years to use models in tasks that require scaling of distance along a single dimension. In Experiment 1, we found that tasks involving models are similar in difficulty to those involving maps that we studied earlier (Huttenlocher, J., Newcombe, N., & Vasilyeva, M. (1999). Spatial scaling in young children. Psychological Science, 10, 393-398). In Experiment 2, we found that retrieval tasks, where children indicate the location of a hidden object in an actual space are substantially more difficult than placement tasks, where children put a visible object in a particular location in an actual space. We discuss possible implications of the differential difficulty of retrieval and placement tasks for the understanding of symbolic development.
Huttenlocher
Janellen
J
University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, 5848 S. University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. hutt@uchicago.edu
Vasilyeva
Marina
M
Newcombe
Nora
N
Duffy
Sean
S
D001076:Aptitude; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009949:Orientation; D011340:Problem Solving; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012858:Size Perception; D013561:Symbolism