Liben, Lyn S., Marta L. Moore and Susan L. Golbeck . (1982). Preschoolers' Knowledge of Their Classroom Environment: Evidence from Small-Scale and Life-Size Spatial Tasks . Child Development, 53(5). [Judy Hicks, 6/1/09]

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Liben, Lyn S., Marta L. Moore and Susan L.
Golbeck . (1982). Preschoolers' Knowledge of
Their Classroom Environment Evidence from
Small-Scale and Life-Size Spatial Tasks . Child
Development, 53(5). Judy Hicks, 6/1/09
Research Question Is it the extraneous demands
of conventional spatial tasks that keep young
children from performing accurately?
Study Preschool children (N20) and college-aged
female student teachers (N10) were tested on
their ability to recreate the preschool classroom
by putting 25 pieces of furniture (some bounded,
some unbounded) back in place. 3 Conditions (all
subjects in each condition) of two tasks
(locationusing forms and layoutusing items of
furniture) --Furniture in the original classroom
--A model while in the original classroom --A
model while in a different room Gridded maps (and
floor tiles) were used to record final locations
of furniture maps were scored by 2 raters.
Critique Building on previous studies in an
attempt to fill in the gaps. -Small N and wide
age/experience range (3yrs, 6mo to 5yrs, 6mo),
although mean age for equal of boys and girls
was same No male adults available -Assumption of
more familiarity with unbounded items no
evidence/data -Using cardboard forms in the
layout tasks creates a layer of abstraction
Findings Performance on the layout task was
significantly better for the classroom model than
for the cued model significantly better for cued
than for standard Performance on the location
task for the standard model was significantly
worse than on either the cued or the classroom
model Significantly greater number correct on
bounded versus unbounded pieces of furniture No
significant differences based on sex were found