Theories that span tasks and developmental periods require explaining how a single cognitive system can flexibly adapt across contexts yet show stable age-related improvement. Here we present a computational model that embodies a unified the- ory of visuospatial cognitive development. We use this model to bridge between previously disconnected domains, as diverse as infant habituation and visual working memory capacity in adults. We illustrate how the same real-time and developmental processes can account for behavior across tasks and age groups. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of a unified theory for understanding cognition and development more broadly, with an eye toward early intervention.

Previous research showed that children’s spatial language production predicts their spatial skills, but the mechanisms underlying this relation remain a source of debate. This study examined whether 4-year-olds’ spatial skills were predicted by their attention to task-relevant information—in tasks that emphasize either memory or language—above and beyond their spatial word production. Children completed three types of tasks: (1) a memory task assessing attention to task-relevant color, size, and location cues; (2) a production task assessing adaptive use of language to describe scenes, varying in color, size, and location; and (3) spatial tasks. After controlling for age, gender, and vocabulary, children’s spatial skills were significantly predicted by their memory for task-relevant cues, above and beyond their task-related language production and adaptive use of language. These findings suggest that attending to relevant information is a process supporting spatial skill acquisition and underlies the relation between language and spatial cognition.

How much does children’s performance on analogy tasks reflect general analogical reasoning versus specific knowledge? We asked this by comparing young children’s performance on conceptual (e.g., whole, broken) versus spatial (e.g., above, overlapping) analogies. We asked two primary research questions. First, does children’s performance correlate across tasks that depict conceptual versus spatial analogies? Second, if children complete the easier analogical task first, does that experience boost performance on the second, harder task? Successfully solving analogy problems in one domain could provide insights to children that may carry over to a new domain. However, if poor performance reflects an underlying lack of knowledge, rather than weak analogical reasoning, then additional analogy experience will not be beneficial. Results showed that children performed significantly better on conceptual than spatial analogies, and that the order of tasks did not influence performance. Furthermore, performance was not correlated across domains. These results suggest that performance on these two tasks primarily reflects children’s understanding of the concepts and relations needed to complete the analogies, rather than analogical reasoning.