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Abstract:
Abstract: Geometric features of surfaces and landmarks are
constituent elements of spatial representations. A number of
studies in animals (rats) and human children (24 month-old) have
evidenced that in a rectangular environment with a reward hidden in
one of the corners, geometric properties predominate over landmarks
for locating the goal. In contrast, monkeys and human adults are
able to take into account both types of information (geometry and
landmarks) to reorient. So far, all of the experiments have been
conducted in the locomotor space. In the present study, we examined
whether similar patterns of data are found using a table-top model
of a rectangular room. Three groups of children (3, 4, and 5
year-old) were tested. Data show that geometric encoding appears
only at 4 years of age, i.e. later than in the locomotor space.
However, when a landmark is present, this type of information
predominates over geometry in 4 and 5-year old children: most of
their errors concern the corner closer to the landmark. In the
whole, the present data show that different types of processing are
implemented in the manipulatory and in the locomotor space. This
suggests that being immersed in the environment induces a different
processing than when the test situation corresponds to an object
outside the subject.
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