Experimental Study Of The Frame Of Reference System For Children's Spatial Cognition

Space - as the existence of substance - is the vital environment for us to live and one of the most important aspects for people to know this world. We've began to contact with the spatial world around us since we were born, and experience environment through relationship between people and outside objects. There are two kinds of reference system with which people know the subject world, one is egocentric reference frame, and another one is allocentric reference frame. Research of the development of spatial cognition and relative impact facts not only will bring out important theories, but will help creating great applicable results. Cultivating children a good sense of spatial cognition will significantly help them adapt to environment and improve their abilities all around, as it weight too much for the development of children's cognition and precondition of adaptation.Development trend, impact facts and reference frame types of spatial reference frames for children in different ages are researched in this paper with method of animals in a row test created by Levinson. Three experiments are designed which participants are children aging 5-, 7-, 9- and 11-year-old of kindergarten and primary school. Experiment 1: whether differences remain when egocentric reference frame or allocentric reference frame is selected by different aging children without landmark. Experiment 2: whether children are impacted by landmark when using reference frame - that is to compare with experiment 1 and find out if participant more tend to select allocentric reference frame when landmark exist, and if difference of ages is issue to the selection. Experiment 3: whether children tend to use absolute reference frame or intrinsic reference frame under condition of allocentric reference frame.From the studies, the following conclusions were draw:1) Apparent differences exist in selection of reference frame by children grouped by different ages in space cognitive experiments. Spatial reference frame chosen by children shows trend of egocentric reference frame to allocentric reference frame in spite of existence of landmark. 2) Significant differences exist in selection of spatial reference by children grouped by different ages. The 5- and 7-year-olds tend to choose egocentric reference frame, while the 9- and 11- year-olds tend to choose allocentric reference frame, which means people tend to use allocentric reference frame instead of egocentric reference frame when they grow. The 7- to 9- year-olds is a quick development period from self reference to subject reference.3) Children are more easily influenced by landmark when using spatial reference frame. They tend to use egocentric reference frame without landmark while use allocentric reference frame when landmark exists. The 5-year-olds choose egocentric reference frame no matter whether there is landmark, which indicate they are still in period of self-center coding. The 7-, 9- and 11-year-olds tent to choose allocentric reference frame and were influenced by landmark in different degrees, which indicate they've developed subject-center coding to spatial cognition.4) Children chose intrinsic reference frame mainly to cognize spatial orientation when trying to figure out if intrinsic reference frame or absolute one is selected when using allocentric reference frame.