Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
The paper by Spencer and Blades, both of the Department of Psychology in the University of Sheffield, was presented on 14 March 1984 at an Institute meeting held in London to discuss Psychology and Navigation.
From its earliest moments, the young organism has a need to track and integrate into some scheme of knowledge the location of salient objects and places; and thence to develop navigational strategies for efficient movement through space. In the case of human young, their initially limited mobility constrains the extent of their active explorations, and thus their range of experience; and adult protectiveness (somewhat heightened in the modern, suburban nuclear family setting) continues to limit such explorations even when the child is fully capable of extensive movement round the local area (Pick and Acredolo, 1983).