DIFFERENTIAL USE OF LANDMARKS BY 8-YEAR-OLD AND 12-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN DURING ROUTE REVERSAL NAVIGATION

Eight-and 12-year-old children were escorted on their first walk acros s a university campus and were instructed to pay attention to designat ed landmarks at intersections. Some of these landmarks were then surre ptitiously moved prior to the child's return trip. Younger children we re more likely than older children to judge that they were off the ori ginal route when they were at the intersections with changed landmarks . Younger children were also less likely than older children to know t he direction to return at those intersections. Although children of bo th age groups gave similar numbers of reports of use of the designated landmarks, older children more often than younger children reported u sing stable and distant landmarks in addition to the designated landma rks. The results are used to describe the development of encoding of l andmarks for way finding. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.