From Map Reading to Geometric Intuitions

TitleFrom Map Reading to Geometric Intuitions
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2018
AuthorsDillon, MR, Spelke, ES
JournalDevelopmental Psychology
Date Published03/2018
ISSN0012-1649
Keywordseuclidean geometry, mathematical cognition, spatial cognition, spatial symbols
Abstract

The origins and development of our geometric intuitions have been debated for millennia. The present study links children’s developing intuitions about the properties of planar triangles to their developing abilities to read purely geometric maps. Six-year-old children are limited when navigating by maps that depict only the sides of a triangle in an environment composed of only the triangle’s corners and vice versa. Six-year-old children also incorrectly judge how the angle size of the third corner of a triangle varies with changes to the other two corners. These limitations in map reading and in judgments about triangles are attenuated, respectively, by 10 and 12 years of age. Moreover, as children get older, their map reading predicts their geometric judgments on the triangle task. Map reading thus undergoes developmental changes that parallel an emerging capacity to reason explicitly about the distance and angle relations essential to euclidean geometry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

 

Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000509.supp

URLhttp://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-12810-001
DOI10.1037/dev0000509
Reprint EditionAdvance online publication.

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