Toddlers' use of metric information and landmarks to reorient

Mobile organisms can keep track of spatial location (both their own location and that of objects in the environment) using either an external referent system or one centered on the self and updated by information about movement through space. When the latter system is disabled (e.g., by rapid turning), aspects of the external world must be used to reestablish orientations Recently, it has been claimed that, both for rats and for human toddlers, reorientation is achieved using a geometric module that accepts only information about the metric properties of the environment (C. R. Gallistel, 1990, L. Hermer & E. S. Spelke, 1994, 1996). In a series of experiments, this paper confirms that geometric information is used for reorientation by young children, but gives reason to doubt that the use of this information is achieved using a module impenetrable to nongeometric information. (C) 2001 Academic Press.