Use of Virtual Environments to Investigate Development of Spatial Behavior and Spatial Knowledge of School-Age Children

Abstract

This review aims to show the potential of using virtual environments in developmental spatial cognition research to advance empirical knowledge and theoretical insight. The facility for easy and economic variations of environmental features, the active, self-determined exploration, and the reliable registration of the navigation behavior using virtual environments allow investigating the development of spatial behavior and spatial knowledge in more detail. As a consequence, a dissociation between spatial behavior and spatial knowledge was observed, leading to the conclusion that spatial context has to be integrated further in any theoretical model regarding development of spatial cognition.