The development of categorical and coordinate spatial relations

J. Bullens, A. Postma

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Two classes of spatial relations can be distinguished in between and within object representations. Kosslyn
[Kosslyn, S. M. (1987). Seeing and imagining in the cerebral hemispheres: A computational approach.
Psychological Review, 94, 148–175] suggested that the right hemisphere (RH) is specialized for processing
coordinate (metric) spatial information and the left hemisphere (LH) processes categorical (abstract) information
more effectively. The present study examined the developmental pattern of spatial relation processing
in 6–8-year old, 10–12-year old and adults. Using signal detection analyses we calculated sensitivity and
bias scores for all age groups. The results indicated that older children and adults showed a greater response
bias than younger children. Also, discrimination sensitivity for spatial relation changes clearly improved
with age. For the oldest children (10–12-year old) and adults this improvement was accompanied by a RH
specialization. In contrast with Kosslyn’s claim, this RH advantage also applied to the processing of categorical
spatial information. The results are discussed in terms of a right hemispheric specialization for spatial
relation processing which matures with age.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)38-47
Number of pages10
JournalCognitive Development
Volume23
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2008

Keywords

  • Psychologie (PSYC)

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