A fundamental cognitive function found across a wide range of species and necessary for survival is the ability to navigate complex environments. It has been suggested that mobility may play an important role in the development of spatial skills. Despite evolutionary arguments offering logical explanations for why sex/gender differences in spatial abilities and mobility might exist, thus far there has been limited sampling from nonindustrialized and subsistence-based societies. This lack of sampling diversity has left many unanswered questions regarding the effects that environmental variation and cultural norms may have in shaping mobility patterns during childhood and the development of spatial competencies that may be associated with it. Here we examine variation in mobility (through GPS tracking and interviews), performance on large-scale spatial skills (i.e., navigational ability), and performance on small-scale spatial skills (e.g., mental rotation task, Corsi blocks task, and water-level task) among Twa forager/pastoralist children whose daily lives have been dramatically altered since settlement and the introduction of government-funded boarding schools. Unlike in previous findings among Twa adults, boys and girls (N = 88; aged 6–18) show similar patterns of travel on all measures of mobility. We also find no significant differences in spatial task performance by gender for large- or small-scale spatial skills. Further, children performed as well as adults did on mental rotation, and they outperformed adults on the water-level task. We discuss how children’s early learning environments may influence the development of both large- and small-scale spatial skills.

在广泛的物种中发现且生存所必需的基本认知功能是在复杂环境中导航的能力。有人提出，流动性可能在空间技能的发展中发挥重要作用。尽管进化论为为什么可能存在空间能力和流动性方面的性别/性别差异提供了合乎逻辑的解释，但迄今为止，来自非工业化和以生存为基础的社会的样本有限。这种抽样多样性的缺乏留下了许多悬而未决的问题，即环境变化和文化规范在塑造儿童时期的流动模式以及可能与之相关的空间能力发展方面可能产生的影响。在这里，我们检查移动性的变化（通过 GPS 跟踪和采访），Twa 觅食/牧民儿童的大尺度空间技能（即导航能力）和小尺度空间技能（如心理旋转任务、Corsi 块任务和水位任务）的表现自从定居和引入政府资助的寄宿学校以来，情况发生了巨大变化。与之前在 Twa 成人、男孩和女孩中的发现不同（N  = 88；6-18 岁）在所有流动性指标上都表现出相似的旅行模式。我们还发现，对于大尺度或小尺度空间技能，不同性别的空间任务表现没有显着差异。此外，儿童在心理旋转方面的表现与成人一样好，他们在水位任务上的表现也优于成人。我们讨论儿童的早期学习环境如何影响大尺度和小尺度空间技能的发展。