Spatial localization by infants after rotational and translational shifts

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Abstract
Localisation of the site of an event after change in egocentric spatial relationship between it and the subject was examined in two experiments with eight‐month‐old infants. The event always occurred in the one place that was marked by a distinctive visual stimulus. Infants saw the event occur in training trials from two vantage points before being shifted to a third for testing. In the first experiment the effect of rotational shifts was compared with that of translational shifts. Infants looked longer at the site after the former but the pattern of looking was essentially similar in the two conditions. In the second experiment the type of shift differed between training and test trials: Rotational shifts in training trials were followed by translational shifts in test trials and vice versa. In each condition a significant number of infants relocated the site on the first test trial but not on the second. In the third experiment, six‐month‐old infants were tested in the first of these conditions. Their initial and total looking responses were less frequently and less persistently directed toward the site. It was concluded that by about eight months infants can relocate a target after changes in their spatial relationship to it. This ability is evident after brief exposure and does not depend on the repetition of a response that had previously been reinforced.