The role of landmarks in the development of object location memory

Abstract

In order to locate objects in an enclosed environment animals and humans use visual and non-visual distance and direction cues. In the present study, we were interested in children’s ability to relocate an object on the basis of self-motion cues and local and distal color cues for orientation. Five to 9-yearold children were tested on an object location memory task in which, between presentation and test, the availability of local cues and distal cues were manipulated. Additionally, participants’ viewpoint could be changed. Interestingly, children’s overall performance (i.e. absolute distance score) showed that they relied on self-motion cues in case landmarks were not present. Moreover, angular errors indicated that children relied on the orientation provided by distal landmarks when changing viewpoint. These results are discussed in terms of the adaptive combination model, proposed by Newcombe and Huttenlocher (2006), which states that different information sources are weighted differently over the course of development.