Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory in Young Children: A Comparison with Young Adults

The most used frames of reference in spatial memory, which allows us to move through the environment, are the egocentric, related to one's own perspective, and the allocentric, based on environmental cues. Although many tasks have been proposed, those that evaluate the two frames of reference separately and compare adults and children are scarce. Our aim was to assess egocentric and allocentric spatial orientation in young children and young adults, comparing between ages, frames of reference and gender. The Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory tests were used. Adults performed better than children on both tasks. Children performed equally in both frames of reference, but adults were more efficient on the allocentric test. Gender did not seem relevant in the performance of either group. Overall, egocentric and allocentric spatial memory are not fully developed at the age of 7 and children do not master any strategy above the other. Highlights Do school-aged children reach adults performance in egocentric and allocentric spatial memory? Two experimental tasks, Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory tests, were used for assessment. Significant differences were found between children from 5-to-7 years and adults. Egocentric and allocentric frameworks are not fully developed at 7 years. Children may not rely on one specific framework for their orientation.