The development of allocentric spatial frame in the auditory system

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105228Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • At the age of 6–7, children do not show Simon effect with crossed hands’ posture in an auditory task.

  • Younger children (6–7 years old) show an incomplete development of the allocentric spatial frame.

  • Children perform as adults at the age of 10 as they are not affected by crossed hands’ posture.

  • Children’s performance at auditory Simon task correlates with age.

  • Typically developed children show a gradual maturation of allocentric frames between 6 and 10 years old.

Abstract

The ability to encode space is a crucial aspect of interacting with the external world. Therefore, this ability appears to be fundamental for the correct development of the capacity to integrate different spatial reference frames. The spatial reference frame seems to be present in all the sensory modalities. However, it has been demonstrated that different sensory modalities follow various developmental courses. Nevertheless, to date these courses have been investigated only in people with sensory impairments, where there is a possible bias due to compensatory strategies and it is complicated to assess the exact age when these skills emerge. For these reasons, we investigated the development of the allocentric frame in the auditory domain in a group of typically developing children aged 6–10 years. To do so, we used an auditory Simon task, a paradigm that involves implicit spatial processing, and we asked children to perform the task in both the uncrossed and crossed hands postures. We demonstrated that the crossed hands posture affected the performance only in younger children (6–7 years), whereas at 10 years of age children performed as adults and were not affected by such posture. Moreover, we found that this task’s performance correlated with age and developmental differences in spatial abilities. Our results support the hypothesis that auditory spatial cognition’s developmental course is similar to the visual modality development as reported in the literature.

Keywords

Spatial frame of reference
Allocentric reference frame
Spatial representation
Auditory system
Spatial cognition development
Simon task
Crossed hands

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