Children's use of geometry and landmarks to reorient in an open space

Eight experiments tested the abilities of 3-4-year-old children to reorient themselves and locate a hidden object in an open circular space furnished with three or four landmark objects. Reorientation was tested by hiding a t arget object inside one of the landmarks, disorienting the child, observing the child's search for the target, and comparing the child's performance t o otherwise similar trials in which the child remained oriented. On oriente d trials, children located the target successfully in every experiment. On disoriented trials, in contrast, children failed to locate the object when the landmarks were indistinguishable from one another but formed a distinct ive geometric configuration (a triangle with sides of unequal length or a r ectangle). This finding provides evidence that the children failed to use t he geometric configuration of objects to reorient themselves. As in past re search, children also did not appear to reorient themselves in accord with non-geometric properties of the layout. In contrast to these findings, chil dren successfully located the object in relation to a geometric configurati on of walls. Moreover, adults, who were tested in two further experiments, located the object by using both geometric and non-geometric information. T ogether, these ten experiments provide evidence that early-developing navig ational abilities depend on a mechanism that is sensitive to the shape of t he permanent, extended surface layout, but that is not sensitive to geometr ic or non-geometric properties of objects in the layout. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.