title: The development of route learning in Down syndrome, Williams syndrome and typical development: investigations with virtual environments.
abstract: The ability to navigate new environments has a significant impact on the daily life and independence of people with learning difficulties. The aims of this study were to investigate the development of route learning in Down syndrome (N = 50), Williams syndrome (N = 19), and typically developing children between 5 and 11 years old (N = 108); to investigate use of landmarks; and to relate cognitive functions to route-learning ability in these groups. Overall, measures of attention and long-term memory were strongly associated with route learning, even once non-verbal ability was controlled for. All of the groups, including 5- to 6-year-old TD children, demonstrated the ability to make use of all landmark types to aid route learning; those near junctions, those further from junctions, and also distant landmarks (e.g. church spire, radio mast). Individuals with WS performed better than a matched subset of TD children on more difficult routes; we suggest that this is supported by relatively strong visual feature recognition in the disorder. Participants with DS who had relatively high levels of non-verbal ability performed at a similar level to TD participants.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, UK.
authors.forename: Harry R M
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Purser
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University of London, UK.
authors.forename: Emily K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Farran
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire PSITEC (EA 4072), UDL3, Université Lille Nord de France, France.
authors.forename: Yannick
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Courbois
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire PSITEC (EA 4072), UDL3, Université Lille Nord de France, France.
authors.forename: Axelle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lemahieu
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire PSITEC (EA 4072), UDL3, Université Lille Nord de France, France.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sockeel
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire PSY-NCA (EA 4306), Université de Rouen, France.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mellier
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blades
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D018980:Williams Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D055815:Young Adult