DO PERSPECTIVE-TAKING ACTIVITIES INCREASE CHILDREN’S BODY MOVEMENTS DURING A MAPPING TASK
Open Access
- Author:
- Norris, Jennifer Lynn
- Area of Honors:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Lynn Susan Liben, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Frank Gerard Hillary, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- spatial thinking
embodiment
body movement
perspective-taking - Abstract:
- There is evidence to suggest that embodied cognition, or using one’s body to solve problems, is an effective strategy in several different cognitive domains. We sought to determine whether a perspective-taking intervention would lead children to move their bodies more when later solving a mapping task. We also examined whether more body movement would be related to better performance on the mapping task. Given prior work showing that boys often perform better than girls on navigation tasks, we also tested the prediction that boys would do better on the mapping task than girls. Children (aged 8- to 9-years) were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. Children in the experimental group participated in activities designed to enhance their perspective-taking skills. Children in the control group participated in activities in the same locations and for the same amount of time, but the control activities did not involve perspectivetaking. All children then completed a mapping task in which children were given maps of a classroom on which a directional navigation route was shown, and participants were asked to label each turn as a ‘left’ or ‘right.’ Body movements made by participants during the mapping task (e.g., movements of head, shoulders, or arms) were coded from videotapes of the test sessions. Mapping-task performance was measured by the number of correctly labeled turns. Children in the experimental group did not produce significantly more body movements than children in the control group. Children who used more body movements to solve the mapping task, however, did perform significantly better on the task. There was no effect of gender, either as a main effect or in interaction with condition. Results provide support for the suggestion that body movements may help children solve navigational mapping tasks. Future research is needed to test whether other kinds of interventions—apart from perspective-taking activities—might enhance children’s use of body movements and might, in turn, improve children’s performance on mapping tasks or on other tasks that require spatial thinking.