www.elsevier.com/locate/cogpsych The stability and Xexibility of spatial categories

Four experiments examined the Xexibility and stability with which children and adults organize locations into categories based on their spatiotemporal experience with locations. Seven-, 9-, 11-year-olds, and adults learned the locations of 20 objects in an open, square box. During learning, participants experienced the locations in four spatiotemporally deWned groups (i.e., four sets of nearby locations learned together in time). At test, participants attempted to place the objects in the correct locations without the aid of the dots marking the locations. Children and adults displaced the objects toward the corners of the box consistent with the organization they experienced during learning, suggesting that they used spatiotempo-ral experience to organize the locations into groups. Importantly, the pattern of organization remained the same following a long delay for all four age groups, demonstrating stability. For adults, this organization shifted after a new pattern of spatiotemporal experience was intro-duced, suggesting that adults ’ categories based on spatiotemporal experience are quite Xexible. Children only exhibited Xexibility when the new pattern of spatiotemporal organization was consistent with available perceptual cues, demonstrating that the Xexibility with which chil