Subjects were 73 boys entering kindergarten assigned to three spatial familiarization groups two weeks priorto school. One experience involved walking around the campus with an experimenter. A second involved viewing slides of the walk taken by the other children with a replica of the campus in view. A third group received no prior spatial experience. Children in both familiarization groups reported more positive attitudes for academic, spatial, and social affairs in school than children in the control group. Results are discussed in terms of both affective responses and differential cognitive impact.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ACREDOLO, L. P. (1979) "Laboratory versus home: the effect of environment on the 9-month-old infant's choice of spatial reference system."Developmental Psychology15: 666-667.
2.
ACREDOLO, L. P. (1982) "The familiarity factor in spatial research: what does it breed besides contempt?" in R. Cohen (ed.) Children's Conceptions of Spatial Relationships. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
3.
ACREDOLO, L. P. , H. L. PICK, and M. C. OLSEN (1975) "Environmental differentiation and familiarity as determinants of children's memory for spatial location."Developmental Psychology11: 495-501.
4.
ALLEN, G. L. , K. C. KIRASIC, A. W. SIEGEL, and J. F. HERMAN (1979) "Developmental issues in cognitive mapping: the selection and utilization of environmental landmarks."Child Development50: 1062-1070.
5.
COHEN, R. (1982) "The role of activity for the construction of spatial representations," in R. Cohen (ed.) Children's Conceptions of Spatial Relationships. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
6.
COHEN, R. and T. SCHUEPFER (1980) "The representation of landmarks and routes."Child Development51: 1065-1071.
7.
COHEN, R. and D. L. WEATHERFORD (1981) "The effect of barriers on spatial representations."Child Development52: 1087-1090.
8.
COHEN, S. and R. COHEN (1985) "The role of activity in spatial cognition," in R. Cohen (ed.) The Development of Spatial Cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
9.
CORNELL, E. H. and D. H. HAY (1984) "Children's acquisition of a route via different media."Environment and Behavior16: 627-641.
10.
EVANS, G. W. and K. PEZDEK (1980) "Cognitive mapping: knowledge of realworld distance and location information."J. of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory6:13-24.
11.
FELDMAN, A. and L. P. ACREDOLO (1979) "The effect of active versus passive exploration on memory for spatial location in children."Child Development50: 698-704.
12.
HERMAN, J. F. and A. W. SIEGEL (1978) "The development of cognitive mapping of the large-scale environment."J. of Experimental Child Psychology26: 389-406.
13.
MILGRAM, S. , J. GREENWALD, S. KEESLER, W. MCKENNA, and J. WATERS (1972) "A psychological map of New York City."Am. Scientist60: 194-200.
14.
SIEGEL, A. W. and S. H. WHITE (1975). "The development of spatial representations of large-scale environments," in H. W. Reese (ed.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol. 10. New York: Academic Press.
