Development of the Ability to Integrate Egocentric and Allocentric Coordinates in a Blindfolded Navigation Task

Abstract

Spatial orientation during locomotion is a fundamental daily function that requires building mental representations of the surrounding environment. Spatial representations are based on egocentric (self-based) and allocentric (world-based) frames of reference. Representing space according to the allocentric perspective is not fully developed in childhood. This study investigated spatial representation skills in 41 Italian children aged 6 to 11 years old (18F; mean age ± SD: 9 ± 1.58) using a spatial navigation task with no visual cues available. The task was carried out in a local school (Genoa, Italy). The children were blindfolded and guided along a path. The room they walked through was divided into four quadrants, each signaled by an animal-shaped landmark. Before each trial, they observed the landmarks from the starting position. At the end of the path, they were asked to localize all the landmarks. Children were required to represent the relationship among the four landmarks regardless of their position in the room to accomplish the task. The results showed that children had higher accuracy when they were in the same quadrant as the landmark to be indicated across all ages. Interestingly, accuracy increased with age when the child’s position was different from the position of the target landmark (incongruent condition). Additionally, greater path angle amplitude led to lower accuracy across conditions. These findings provide new insights into human spatial development: the ability to represent the environment with an allocentric perspective, based only on self-motion information and previously learned visual landmarks, continues to develop during childhood.