Young Children's Representations of Spatial and Functional Relations Between Objects

Overview

Journal Child Dev

Specialty Pediatrics

Date 2009 Nov 26

PMID 19930341

Citations 13

Authors

Kristin Shutts

Helena Ornkloo

Claes von Hofsten

Rachel Keen

Elizabeth S Spelke

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Three experiments investigated changes from 15 to 30 months of age in children's (N = 114) mastery of relations between an object and an aperture, supporting surface, or form. When choosing between objects to insert into an aperture, older children selected objects of an appropriate size and shape, but younger children showed little selectivity. Further experiments probed the sources of younger children's difficulty by comparing children's performance placing a target object in a hole, on a 2-dimensional form, or atop another solid object. Together, the findings suggest that some factors limiting adults' object representations, including the difficulty of comparing the shapes of positive and negative spaces and of representing shapes in 3 dimensions, contribute to young children's errors in manipulating objects.

Citing Articles

Planning actions with a magnetic tool: how initial tool orientation and number of functional ends influence motor planning abilities in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.).

Sabbatini G, Pallotti S, Meglio G, Truppa V Anim Cogn. 2021; 25(2):329-345.

PMID: 34453667 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01554-9.

Look before you fit: The real-time planning cascade in children and adults.

Ossmy O, Han D, Cheng M, Kaplan B, Adolph K J Exp Child Psychol. 2019; 189:104696.

PMID: 31671343 PMC: 6851484. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104696.

Fitting handled objects into apertures by 17- to 36-month-old children: The dynamics of spatial coordination.

Jung W, Kahrs B, Lockman J Dev Psychol. 2017; 54(2):228-239.

PMID: 29058933 PMC: 5788705. DOI: 10.1037/dev0000420.

Shape up: An eye-tracking study of preschoolers' shape name processing and spatial development.

Verdine B, Bunger A, Athanasopoulou A, Golinkoff R, Hirsh-Pasek K Dev Psychol. 2017; 53(10):1869-1880.

PMID: 28758782 PMC: 5676522. DOI: 10.1037/dev0000384.

Understanding Why Children Commit Scale Errors: Scale Error and Its Relation to Action Planning and Inhibitory Control, and the Concept of Size.

Ishibashi M, Moriguchi Y Front Psychol. 2017; 8:826.

PMID: 28588535 PMC: 5440577. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00826.

References

Hayashi M, Matsuzawa T . Cognitive development in object manipulation by infant chimpanzees. Anim Cogn. 2003; 6(4):225-33. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-003-0185-8. View

Hood B, Dias M . Looking and search measures of object knowledge in preschool children. Dev Psychol. 2003; 39(1):61-70. View

Bertamini M, Croucher C . The shape of holes. Cognition. 2002; 87(1):33-54. DOI: 10.1016/s0010-0277(02)00183-x. View

Tarr M, Bulthoff H . Image-based object recognition in man, monkey and machine. Cognition. 1998; 67(1-2):1-20. DOI: 10.1016/s0010-0277(98)00026-2. View

Mash C, Novak E, Berthier N, Keen R . What do two-year-olds understand about hidden-object events?. Dev Psychol. 2006; 42(2):263-71. DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.42.2.263. View

Levine S, Huttenlocher J, Taylor A, Langrock A . Early sex differences in spatial skill. Dev Psychol. 1999; 35(4):940-9. DOI: 10.1037//0012-1649.35.4.940. View

Ornkloo H, von Hofsten C . Fitting objects into holes: on the development of spatial cognition skills. Dev Psychol. 2007; 43(2):404-16. DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.43.2.404. View

Hoffman D, Richards W . Parts of recognition. Cognition. 1984; 18(1-3):65-96. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(84)90022-2. View

Tarr M . Rotating objects to recognize them: A case study on the role of viewpoint dependency in the recognition of three-dimensional objects. Psychon Bull Rev. 2013; 2(1):55-82. DOI: 10.3758/BF03214412. View

10.

Hoffman D, Singh M . Salience of visual parts. Cognition. 1997; 63(1):29-78. DOI: 10.1016/s0010-0277(96)00791-3. View

11.

Hayashi M . Stacking of blocks by chimpanzees: developmental processes and physical understanding. Anim Cogn. 2006; 10(2):89-103. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-006-0040-9. View

12.

DeLoache J, Uttal D, Rosengren K . Scale errors offer evidence for a perception-action dissociation early in life. Science. 2004; 304(5673):1027-9. DOI: 10.1126/science.1093567. View

13.

Tarr M, Bulthoff H . Is human object recognition better described by geon structural descriptions or by multiple views? Comment on Biederman and Gerhardstein (1993). J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1995; 21(6):1494-505. DOI: 10.1037//0096-1523.21.6.1494. View

14.

Cooper L, Shepard R . Turning something over in the mind. Sci Am. 1984; 251(6):106-7, 110-4. DOI: 10.1038/scientificamerican1284-106. View

15.

Keen R, Shutts K . Object and event representation in toddlers. Prog Brain Res. 2007; 164:227-35. PMC: 2394671. DOI: 10.1016/S0079-6123(07)64012-6. View

16.

Pani J, Jeffres J, Shippey G, Schwartz K . Imagining projective transformations: aligned orientations in spatial organization. Cogn Psychol. 1996; 31(2):125-67. DOI: 10.1006/cogp.1996.0015. View

17.

Rock I . The perception of disoriented figures. Sci Am. 1974; 230(1):78-85. DOI: 10.1038/scientificamerican0174-78. View

18.

Feldman J, Singh M . Information along contours and object boundaries. Psychol Rev. 2005; 112(1):243-52. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.112.1.243. View

19.

Brownell C, Zerwas S, Ramani G . "So big": the development of body self-awareness in toddlers. Child Dev. 2007; 78(5):1426-40. PMC: 3351035. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01075.x. View