Locomotion Improves Children's Spatial Search: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

This meta-analysis quantitatively summarized the developmental influence and the effects of locomotor experience as well as the benefits of locomotor practice, locomotor assistance, and active searching patterns on children's search performance. Based on specific criteria, a search of a database and reference lists identified 19 studies, including 1,029 children (510 boys and 519 girls) from 4 to 144 months of age. Outcome measures of spatial performance were converted to 83 effect sizes that reflected the effects of specific experimental characteristics. Analyses of variance indicated that with older children, locomotor activities are more important to their spatial searching. Locomotor status, searching patterns, locomotor assistance, test conditions, and test reliability were identified as moderator variables. In addition, locomotor training significantly improved children's spatial search. The results supported the hypothesis that children's development of spatial search skills is influenced by locomotor experience.

Crawling is associated with more flexible memory retrieval by 9‐month‐old infants

“…First, assuming that infants of the same chronological (and gestational) age are at the same level of maturity, the differences observed in the present experiment cannot be attributed to maturation alone because the age of the infants was the same irrespective of their crawling status. Second, although the beneficial effects of active exploration within the context of an experiment have been well established (Bensen & Uzgiris, 1985;Feldman & Acredolo, 1979; for review, see Yan, Thomas & Downing, 1998), this kind of proximal mechanism cannot explain the effect of crawling reported here. In the present experiment, and in others, infants were not allowed to engage in exploratory behavior during the task per se ; rather, independent locomotion outside the experimental context enhanced performance on the target task.…”

The role of locomotion in psychological development

“…This finding is important because it further highlights the distinction between the experiences that are associated with locomotion and the means by which locomotion is achieved. A considerable body of research with typically developing children now shows that active locomotion facilitates spatial search performance (Yan et al, 1998). …”

Relation Between Cognitive and Motor Performance in 5‐ to 6‐Year‐Old Children: Results From a Large‐Scale Cross‐Sectional Study

“…A global‐to‐global relation between cognitive and motor behavior was assumed by Bushnell and Boudreau (1993), who stated that motor development might determine the sequence in which certain perceptual and cognitive abilities unfold. This notion is experimentally supported by the finding that the development of spatial search skills in children is facilitated by locomotion experience; however, this facilitation does not appear to provide any long‐lasting benefits to children who achieve locomotor milestones early (Kermoian & Campos, 1988; Lehnung et al, 2003; Yan, Thomas, & Downing, 1998).…”