Spatial language, visual attention, and perceptual simulation 

children spatial development

@inproceedings{simms-08_spatial-language-landmark,
  title={Spatial language and landmark use: can 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds find the middle},
  author={Simms, N. and Gentner, D.},
  booktitle={Proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the cognitive science society. Cognitive Science Society, Austin},
  pages={191--196},
  year={2008}
  annote = {

}

@article{balcomb2011finding,
  title={Finding Where and Saying Where: Developmental Relationships Between Place Learning and Language in the First Year},
  author={Balcomb, F. and Newcombe, N.S. and Ferrara, K.},
  journal={Journal of Cognition and Development},
  volume={12},
  number={3},
  pages={315--331},
  year={2011},
  publisher={Taylor \& Francis},
  annote = {

The relationship between emergent spatial understanding in different
cognitive domains, including navigation and language, has rarely been studied
using methods that allow for the examination of individual differences. In
this study the authors explored emergent place learning and its relationship
to early spatial language, namely prepositions, in 16- to 24-month-old
children. Children were tested using a spatial task adapted from the Morris
water maze, and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory. In the
place-learning task, children were placed in a circular enclosure and a
puzzle was hidden under the floor at one location. Before each trial,
children were disoriented and placed in the maze at a different starting
position. Their search types and success at finding the puzzle were coded. As
expected, older children demonstrated more spatial searches and better
place-learning skills (finding the goal), as well as greater overall
expressive vocabulary. Place learning and language did not correlate with
each other once age was partialled, with one crucial exception: a
theoretically predicted correlation between prepositions and goal
localization.

}}