This ongoing program of research probes the hypothesis that mapping behavior is displayed by essentially all people in all cultures. More specifically, the theory suggests that the making and use of map-like models (defined as material artifacts or groups of artifacts which represent geographical landscapes as viewed from overhead, reduced in scale, and depicted with abstract or iconic signs) should be characteristic of all contemporary and past cultures. In addition, an untaught ability to make, read, and use simple map-like models should be displayed by very young children in all cultures. Four experiments will explore preschool-age children's spatial knowledge and mapping ability. Study 1 examines 4-year-olds' ability to construct map-like landscapes using small models depicting environmental objects, comparing individual and group behavior and determining whether modeling behavior precedes ability to express such behavior using natural language. Study 2 replicates Study 1 in a contrasting cultural setting--a peasant village in Oaxaca, Mexico. Study 3 will determine whether Texan children aged 4 and 5 can use a simple iconic map to solve a navigation problem in a 1-hectare-size macro-geographic landscape. Study 4 will discover whether 4- and 5-year-olds in Chicago can understand the semantic dimension of mapping by testing these children's ability to interpret and use self-defined map-signs in landscape modeling. A fifth, supplementary study extends earlier exploration of archaeological and ethnographic reports of mapping behavior. In order to find out how people manage to understand, cope with, and get around in large, geographical environments, it is necessary to study the way people of all ages and cultures make and use map-like models (depicting the landscape as though seen from overhead). The study of this phenomenon is cross-disciplinary, extending from geography (cultural ecology) to environmental psychology and anthropology. Until recently it was widely believed that children do not acquire this ability until the age of about 7 and that the mapping ability is not found everywhere. In more recent research, the present investigators and others have shown, in several contrasting cultures, that 3-5-year-old children possess significant map-making and map-using abilities. Preschool-age children can read aerial photographs without instruction and can construct map-like landscapes in play. This project proposes to go well beyond earlier research to examine other dimensions of young children's mapping. It involves study of social and cultural factors in young children's mapping, of the relation of mapping to ordinary language and to the use of abstract map-signs, and of young children's utilization of semi-pictorial maps in wayfinding in large environments. The research will contribute to understanding the development of environmental cognition and behavior in young children. It should have considerable significance for primary education in the sciences: if preschool children already possess basic mapping abilities, then kindergarten and early elementary education can be broadened, and enriched, to encompass macro-scale, map-scale, concepts and theories in physical, biological, and social science (for instance, land and water forms, ecosystems, urban structure, and location systems), concepts that are usually taught only to much older children under the wrong assumption that children of school-entering age do not have natural mapping abilities.
