Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Cardinal directions refer to the four main points of direction in geographical space: north, south, east, and west. Efficientnavigation requires some basic knowledge about cardinal directions. We evaluated developmental changes in cardinaldirection knowledge in real space. Tested in an unfamiliar indoor environment with a window view, 94 children aged 6-12years old were asked to point to North and then point to East. We proposed 7 developmental stages based on knowingthe horizontal plane of cardinal directions, the inter-relationships between them, and how to identify north using referenceframes. Our classification scheme classified all participants and was sensitive to age differences. Our results suggested thatidentifying north was more difficult than knowing the inter-relationships. Many children were not able to use an allocentricreference frame effectively. Overall, our study demonstrates the utility of our classification scheme and the importance ofevaluating cardinal direction knowledge development in children.