Abstract
Establishing the spatial location of an object is important for egocentric mapping and planning reach movements. Can we hold spatial location of an object in memory to plan an action even when this object is no longer in view? Our intent was to examine the ability of children to use spatial information from memory to estimate distances of objects (targets) from one another. Children (n = 66), ages 5-, 7-, 9-, 11 years and young adults (n = 17) were asked to estimate how far a cued target was from a response target in immediate (visually-guided) and response-delay (1-, 2-, and 4 s) conditions. Participants were systematically positioned in a chair and based on individual maximum reach, seven target positions were created comprising of four target positions in peripersonal space and three in extrapersonal space. Targets were displayed in random order with three trials at each location. ANOVA results for accuracy indicated differences between Age within Condition (p < .01). Overall, adults were more accurate than children. Post hoc analysis revealed that with delays of ? 2 s, performance was affected with all groups, but most notably with the 5- and 7-year-olds, p < .001. Overall, children as a group tended to underestimate significantly more than adults in the delay conditions. In summary, these findings indicate that, compared to older children and adults, young children have more difficulty in mentally representing memory-guided tasks.
