ABSTRACT
The theory and data described in the following pages emerged from an observation made early in 1967. The observation was an outgrowth of a proposal to teach cartography to children via the prior teaching of aerial photographs. However, preliminary testing of 6-year-old Puerto Rican children indicated that, contrary to all expectations, they could already read black and white vertical aerial photographs with very little difficulty. This surprising result led to the initiation of a cross-cultural and developmental study of spatial (environmental) learning, involving children in both Puerto Rico and Southeastern New England.
