The relative importance of spatial-position as a memory aid in a block pattern reproduction task was investigated by analyzing the object-selection and object-placement strategies of 69 nursery school children. Subjects were given a task modeled on Piaget's assessment of Static Reproductive Images and Action that had been modified into a…

A review of recent studies indicates that gifted learners spontaneously produce more effective learning strategies than comparison groups and benefit from the use of more complex, externally provided strategies. Implications include the use of slower presentation rates for new information, spatial organization of prose content, and…

After viewing pictures of simple objects varied in color and spatial location, first, third, and fifth graders were assessed for their abilities in automatic processing of spatial and color information. In general, no evidence was found to suggest that the processing strategies of younger children were less sophisticated than those of older…

Investigated orientation while walking through an unfamiliar route within a larger familiar environment. Found instructions made no difference to accuracy but backwards counting led to larger increases in error. Concluded orientation within complex real-world environments may not be best understood by studying performance in artificial mazes.…

Examines (1) the effect of increased motor involvement with an environment on children's memory for spatial locations, and (2) the effect of different degrees of motor involvement under intentional and incidental memory conditions. Thirty boys and 30 girls at each of kindergarten and third-grade levels were individually tested in a large-scale,…

Examined the ability of 1-year olds to remember the location of nonvisible targets. Found that infants were able to associate a nonvisible target with a direct landmark and to code its distance and direction with respect to themselves or the larger framework. Difficulty of coding with indirect landmarks was associated with cognitive complexity and…

Two studies investigated the effect of age on memory for visual and spatial information. Five to 10 year olds were asked to reconstruct a previously seen spatial arrangement of objects. The association between an object's identity and its location was weaker for younger than for older children. (LB)

Comparison for memory for spatial location of 30 persons with and 30 persons without mental retardation found the control group recalled more intentionally learned than incidentally learned locations. The experimental group performed better after incidental learning than after intentional learning and scored as highly as controls on incidental…

Three experiments investigated the role of egocentric orientation in subsequent memory for layouts learned via route (ground-level) and survey (aerial or overview) perspectives. Participants learned virtual environments from text descriptions (Experiment 1) or visual presentation (Experiments 1-3). In all experiments, scene recognition for route…

Four experiments investigated the nature of spatial representations used in locomotion. Participants learned the layout of several objects and then pointed to the objects while blindfolded in 3 conditions: before turning (baseline), after turning to a new heading (updating), and after disorientation (disorientation). The internal consistency of…

The author discusses the role of educational "crutches" that help elementary learning disabled children in tasks involving spatial orientation, visual perception, and auditory short-term memory. Teachers are cautioned to observe how children act in different situations and to allow them whatever "crutches" are effective. (CL)

The role of the hippocampus in memory function is discussed. Work with rats, monkeys, and humans largely agrees concerning its function and structure. The hippocampus is essential for a type of memory designated "declarative," the ability to remember that a visual object was presented in a particular context. (SLD)

A study presented four groups of chess players (child experts and novices, adult experts and novices) with short-term memory tasks involving meaningful and random chess positions, as well as a control board composed of geometric-shaped spaces and pieces. Found that child experts' immediate recall for meaningful chess positions was far superior to…

The relationship between verbal and visual-spatial working memory and mathematical computation skill was examined in 98 children and adults with and without mathematical disabilities. A hierarchical regression analysis, when partialing for reading ability, age, and gender influences, showed mathematical computation was better predicted by verbal…

Two studies investigated whether language-specific patterns encoding manner and direction of motion in English and Greek affect adult and child speakers' performance on nonlinguistic motion tasks and linguistic descriptions of these motion events. Although the two linguistic groups differed in linguistic preferences, nonlinguistic task performance…