Using a position learning procedure, this study investigates 4-, 5 and 6-year-olds'
ability to retrieve, after a blindfolded move in an experimental room without
fronted or distinctive landmarks, an immobile target localized before moving.
Mastery in such a task would rely on the use of an "updated self-referent system"
such that children would first perform an egocentrated target localization, then
would compute their own move and finally, would coordinate this localization and
this computation in order to update, after moving, an egocentrated localization that
has become irrelevant. The results are consistent with the different components of
this system. They mainly show that children as young as 4 years of age are able to
steadily coordinate after moving, a prior egocentrated localization with what they
rightly or wrongly believe to be their starting point, i.e., whether or not their
computation of the move is accurate.
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