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ERIC Number: EJ1312534
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1524-8372
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Eye Tracking Lateralized Spatial Associations in Early Childhood
West, Eloise; McCrink, Koleen
Journal of Cognition and Development, v22 n5 p678-694 2021
This experiment tests the age at which left-to-right spatial associations found in infancy shift to culture-specific spatial biases in later childhood, for both numerical and non-numerical information. Children ages 1-5 years (N = 320) were tested within an eye-tracking paradigm which required passive viewing of a video portraying a spatial transposition. In this video, an item was hidden in a vertical set of locations, which were then surreptitiously rotated 90°. There were several conditions, which varied in the degree to which the locations were presented alongside ordinal (numerical, alphabetical) or non-ordinal (nonsense label) information. After transposition, a narrator prompted the child to visually search the array. The amount of time spent fixating in a location consistent with a left-to-right mapping or a right-to-left mapping was measured to gauge the degree and laterality of spatial associations. Overall, children looked more toward locations consistent with a left-to-right mapping. This effect fluctuated with age, dipping as children entered toddlerhood, increasing in 3- and 4-year-olds, and then disappearing at age 5. The ordinal nature of the stimuli (e.g., numerical or non-numerical) did not influence the laterality of the spatial associations. A follow-up experiment confirms that, like older preschoolers, adults (N = 66) also exhibit no spontaneous left-to-right mapping bias in this paradigm, with no fluctuation as a result of condition. These data support the presence of a decrease in left-to-right processing around the age of two as children recede from infantile spatial biases and progress to exhibiting culture-specific spatial biases in early childhood.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1R15HD09636301
Author Affiliations: N/A