Memory for Object Location: A Span Study in Children

A number of studies suggest that object location memory might depend upon a variety of component processes, namely remembering which locations in space were occupied and remembering the identity of the objects that occupied each location. The aim of the present experiment was to analyse, using a span procedure, the development of spatial memory in three experimental conditions: positional reconstruction, object-location binding, and the integration of these two in the combined condition. A total of 160 children aged 6, 8 and 10 years were tested. The findings of the present study provide developmental spans in each relocation condition. Results also show an age dependent improvement in all conditions, showing that spatial location is not automatically encoded and different developmental patterns for each of the relocation conditions considered, suggesting that spatial memory does comprise a number of different component processes