Journal
TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES
Volume 18, Issue 10, Pages 536-542Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE LONDON
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.05.011
Keywords
cognitive development; mental rotation; theory of mind; intuitive physics; perspective taking; simulation
Funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation [PZ00P1_131866]
- US National Science Foundation [SBE-0541957, SBE-1041707]
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) [PZ00P1_131866] Funding Source: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
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Mental representation and transformation of spatial information is often examined with mental rotation (MR) tasks, which require deciding whether a rotated image is the same as or the mirror version of an upright image. Recent research with infants shows early discrimination of objects from mirror-image versions. However, even at the age of 4 years, many children perform at near chance level on more standard measures. Similar age discrepancies can be observed in other domains, including perspective taking, theory of mind, and intuitive physics. These paradoxical results raise the questions of how performance relates to competence and how to conceptualize developmental change. There may be a common underlying mechanism: the development of the ability to imagine things and mentally transform them in a prospective fashion.
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