6 - Development of Spatial Competence

Summary

Abstract

This chapter discusses the development of visuospatial representation and thinking. Although development crosscuts all of the issues covered in other chapters in this handbook, it is typically (perhaps unfortunately) discussed separately within cognitive psychology. In this chapter, we offer a focused look at how the spatial abilities of the competent adult come about. Infants begin with certain spatial skills, as nativists have often stressed, and yet these skills change with development, as stressed by other theories including Vygotskyan, empiricist and interactionist approaches. Some important developmental changes include: the reweighting of initial spatial coding systems as the infant learns more about the world, the advent of place learning, and the acquisition of perspective taking and mental rotation. Children also begin to be able to use symbolic representations of space, including maps, models and linguistic descriptions, and they learn to think about space and to use spatial representations for thinking.