A Cross-Cultural Study of Children's Cognitive Maps

Abstract

This cross-cultural study was designed to investigate children's development of spatial representation as measured by the sketch map technique (cognitive mapping). The sample (N = 526) consisted of white, black, Asian and coloured South Africans of both sexes varying in age from 5 to 13 years. The maps were assessed according to a Piagetian constructivist framework and the quality of accompanying verbal descriptions was evaluated. The sketch maps differed in terms of age but not race, gender or socio-economic status. Evaluative verbal descriptions were provided by more girls than boys and by more white subjects than black subjects. The developmental trends shown Were similartothose described in the existing literature.Die doel van hierdie kruiskulturele studie was om kinders se ontwikkeling van ruimtelike voorstellings soos deur 'n sketskaarttegniek (kognitiewe kartering) gemeet, te ondersoek. Die steekproef (N = 526) het wit, swart, Asier en kleurling Suid-Afrikaners van beide geslagte tussen die ouderdomme van 5 en 13 jaar ingesluit. Daar is van 'n Piagetiaanse konstruktivistiese raamwerk gebruik gemaak in die evaluering van die sketskaarte. Verder is die aard van die meegaande verbale beskrywings ook beoordeel. Die sketskaarte het verskille ten opsigte van ouderdom getoon, maar geen verskille het met betrekking tot ras, geslag of sosioekonomiese status na vore getree nie. Evaluatiewe verbale beskrywings is egter deur meer meisies as seuns, asook deur meer wit as swart proefpersone verskaf. Ontwikkelingstendense wat in hierdie studie voorgekom het, stem ooreen met bestaande beskrywings in die literatuur.<To whom correspondence should be addressed 91

Gender and Task in the Determination of Spatial Cognitive Performance

“…With some exceptions (e.g., Grieve & Van Staden, 1988;McCormack, 1982;Sharps & Gollin, 1987a;Sonnenfeld, 1985;Waddell & Rogoff, 1981), most studies of spatial memory have employed relatively simple arrays of items or simple maps with relatively few cues to location (e.g., Light & Zelinski, 1983;Lips et al, 1978;Miller & Santoni, 1986;Park, Puglisi, & Lutz, 1982;Park, Puglisi, & Sovacool, 1983; also see Hasher & Zacks, 1979;Siegel, Herman, Allen, & Kirasic, 1979). There has been some contention concerning generalization among task contexts of different scales (e.g., Sonnenfeld, 1985).…”

“…Also, there are dissenting reports from the experimental laboratory. For example, Grieve and Van Staden (1988) found no sex differences on a spatial memory task that required the construction of sketch maps of towns. Kail et al (1979) found females to be as accurate as males, although not as fast, at making spatial judgments within mental image rotation (MIR) tasks.…”

A Systematic Review into Factors Influencing Sketch Map Quality

“…Socioeconomic status, similarly, has been confirmed in three studies and unconfirmed in two. However, unlike with the level of education, no common trends have been found in the influence of socioeconomic status [111,112].…”

“…Age may be considered proven, as it was confirmed in seven studies out of nine. Studies of school-aged-children confirmed that younger pupils used more pictorial cartographic symbols, while older pupils drew objects using Euclidian geometry [8,109,111]. Younger respondents also tended to choose the sequential type of sketch map, while older respondents tended to opt for the spatial type of sketch map [41,71].…”

“…Three studies failed to confirm the influence of socioeconomic status on the overall quality of sketch maps. However, each of these studies focussed on a different quality parameter [85,110,111]. Other studies indicate that people with higher status have better quality sketch maps [41,74,89,112], i.e., they draw more elements, have greater positional accuracy and tend to draw spatial map types that correspond more to the real map.…”