| Abstract: | Investigated whether toddlers could remember the left and right sides of a symmetrical array. 64 22-35 mo old children learned to find a reward under 1 box of a 2- or a 9-box array. Two generalization conditions were introduced: The array was moved to new positions on 1 side of the S, or the S moved 180° to a new side of the table. To prevent visual tracking of the correct box, the array was kept covered except when the S responded. Ss were able to identify the correct side of the array after various spatial displacements; however, good performance appeared primarily for the 9-box array. Three conclusions are drawn: (a) The use of 2-choice tasks limits the study of spatial cognition; (b) a developmental shift from an egocentric to an allocentric framework may be more apparent than real; and (c) an analysis of the cognitive demands of left-right tasks provides a better basis for understanding performance than the assumption that discriminations along the horizontal axis are difficult to make and remember. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
