ABSTRACT
Our work is focused on the development of a specific type of temporary spatial memory, specifically, children’s memory for locations in a smallscale environment. Using the working memory model of Baddeley and Hitch (1974; Baddeley, 1986) as our theoretical base, we have addressed the following general questions: What role do different types of mental representations play in children’s memory for location at different ages, and at what age do nonverbal strategies emerge for maintaining location information for a short period of time? In particular, we are concerned with when and how relations among several individual locations are combined into a pattern. On one hand, this combination might be configurational, connoting a static representation. From this point of view, the critical issue is the extent to which observers are capable of proceeding “beyond the information given” to connect successively perceived spatial information and integrate it into a stable constellation through the use of mental imagery. On the other hand, the combination just mentioned might be sequential, connoting a dynamic representation. From this perspective, the critical issue is an observer’s ability to link individual loca-
tions step-by-step into an imagined path that could be mentally scanned repeatedly by means of a rehearsal-like process.
