Abstract
Unlike for other abilities, children do not receive systematic spatial orientation training at school, even though navigational training during adulthood improves spatial skills. We investigated whether navigational training programme (NTP) improved spatial orientation skills in pre-schoolers. We administered 12-week NTP to seventeen 4- to 5-year-old children (training group, TG). The TG children and 17 age-matched children (control group, CG) who underwent standard didactics were tested twice before (T0) and after (T1) the NTP using tasks that tap into landmark, route and survey representations. We determined that the TG participants significantly improved their performances in the most demanding navigational task, which is the task that taps into survey representation. This improvement was significantly higher than that observed in the CG, suggesting that NTP fostered the acquisition of survey representation. Such representation is typically achieved by age seven. This finding suggests that NTP improves performance on higher-level navigational tasks in pre-schoolers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 574 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | OCT |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 16 2017 |
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Keywords
- Allocentric representation
- Egocentric representation
- Environmental knowledge
- Human navigation
- Normal development
- Spatial orientation training
- Survey knowledge
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience(all)
Cite this
Enhancing allocentric spatial recall in pre-schoolers through navigational training programme. / Boccia, Maddalena; Rosella, Michela; Vecchione, Francesca; Tanzilli, Antonio; Palermo, Liana; D'Amico, Simonetta; Guariglia, Cecilia; Piccardi, Laura.
In: Frontiers in Neuroscience, Vol. 11, No. OCT, 574, 16.10.2017.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhancing allocentric spatial recall in pre-schoolers through navigational training programme
AU - Boccia, Maddalena
AU - Rosella, Michela
AU - Vecchione, Francesca
AU - Tanzilli, Antonio
AU - Palermo, Liana
AU - D'Amico, Simonetta
AU - Guariglia, Cecilia
AU - Piccardi, Laura
PY - 2017/10/16
Y1 - 2017/10/16
N2 - Unlike for other abilities, children do not receive systematic spatial orientation training at school, even though navigational training during adulthood improves spatial skills. We investigated whether navigational training programme (NTP) improved spatial orientation skills in pre-schoolers. We administered 12-week NTP to seventeen 4- to 5-year-old children (training group, TG). The TG children and 17 age-matched children (control group, CG) who underwent standard didactics were tested twice before (T0) and after (T1) the NTP using tasks that tap into landmark, route and survey representations. We determined that the TG participants significantly improved their performances in the most demanding navigational task, which is the task that taps into survey representation. This improvement was significantly higher than that observed in the CG, suggesting that NTP fostered the acquisition of survey representation. Such representation is typically achieved by age seven. This finding suggests that NTP improves performance on higher-level navigational tasks in pre-schoolers.
AB - Unlike for other abilities, children do not receive systematic spatial orientation training at school, even though navigational training during adulthood improves spatial skills. We investigated whether navigational training programme (NTP) improved spatial orientation skills in pre-schoolers. We administered 12-week NTP to seventeen 4- to 5-year-old children (training group, TG). The TG children and 17 age-matched children (control group, CG) who underwent standard didactics were tested twice before (T0) and after (T1) the NTP using tasks that tap into landmark, route and survey representations. We determined that the TG participants significantly improved their performances in the most demanding navigational task, which is the task that taps into survey representation. This improvement was significantly higher than that observed in the CG, suggesting that NTP fostered the acquisition of survey representation. Such representation is typically achieved by age seven. This finding suggests that NTP improves performance on higher-level navigational tasks in pre-schoolers.
KW - Allocentric representation
KW - Egocentric representation
KW - Environmental knowledge
KW - Human navigation
KW - Normal development
KW - Spatial orientation training
KW - Survey knowledge
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U2 - 10.3389/fnins.2017.00574
DO - 10.3389/fnins.2017.00574
M3 - Article
VL - 11
JO - Frontiers in Neuroscience
JF - Frontiers in Neuroscience
SN - 1662-4548
IS - OCT
M1 - 574
ER -