The Representation of Landmarks and Routes

Abstract

COHEN, ROBERT, and SCHUEPFER, THERESE. The Representation of Landmarks and Routes. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 1065-1071. Second graders, sixth graders, and college students served in 2 experiments designed to assess (a) the selection and use of landmarks during route learning and (b) the coordination of successive environmental experiences into an overall configuration. Subjects learned a route through a series of halls presented on slides with each slide containing 3 landmarks having different route orienting values. Second graders were the most influenced by the position and sequence of landmarks. Performance of these children declined when landmarks were removed from the environment and when the sequence of slides was altered. The performances of sixth graders and adults were less affected by these manipulations. On 2 tasks designed to assess configuration knowledge only the adults produced fully consistent overall configurations of the successively presented environment. The results are consistent with the developmental sequence proposed by Siegel and White of recognition of landmarks in context to route maps to survey maps, for the representation of large-scale environments.