1. Eight Reasons to Doubt the Existence of a Geometric Module Nora S. Newcombe Temple University

2. When Sociobiology Met Cognitive Psychology  Modular mind Adaptive pressure works to select specific mental abilities  Massive modularity  Core knowledge  Innateness These evolutionarily-selected modules are (naturally) innately specified

3. Swiss Army Knife Analogy  “The Swiss Army knife is a flexible tool [because] it is a bundle of tools, each well- designed for solving a different problem – scissors for cutting paper, corkscrew for opening wine, toothpick for cleaning teeth…..Similarly, the human mind … contains a large number of programs, each well-designed for solving a different adaptive problem: choosing a good mate, caring for children, foraging for food, avoiding predators, navigating a landscape, forming coalitions, trading, defending one’s family against aggression, and so on”— Leda Cosmides

4. Innately-Specified Modules Have Proliferated  Language acquisition  Face processing  Theory of mind  Cheater detection  Geometric module

5. What Do We Mean By Modularity?  Modular cognitive systems are domain specific, innately specified, hard wired, autonomous, and not assembled. Fodor (1983, p. 37)

6. Neural Specialization Does Not Entail Encapsulated Modularity  Brain areas generally need to ‘talk to’ one another to support a function

7. Case Study of the Geometric Module  A representation of geometric information that guides reorientation following disorientation  That does NOT use nongeometric information even when doing so would be advantageous

8. Hermer & Spelke (1996): Search Rates for Toddlers White Room F C R N F C R N C = Correct N = Near R = Reversal F = Far.08.49.31.12.10.39.12

9. Hermer & Spelke: Search Rates for Adults White Room F C R N F C R N C = Correct N = Near R = Reversal F = Far 0.04.96 0.02.41.57 0

10. Language-as-Bridge Hypothesis  Adults may have a further system of representation that is uniquely human and that emerges over the course of development. This system may connect to many other systems of representation, regardless of their domain-specific content. Its operation may be governed by rules and principles allowing the arbitrary combination of information from distinct, domain-specific sources….The language faculty appears to have all the right properties to serve as this uniquely human combinatorial system of representation. --Hermer-Vazquez, Spelke & Katsnelson (1999, p. 34)

11. Support for Role of Language  Transition to feature use at 6 years is correlated with productive use of left and right  Training left and right leads to feature use  Adults who do linguistic shadowing task concurrently do not use features

12. Adaptive Combination Models  Various sources of spatial information Ego-referenced: response learning and path integration Allo-referenced: cue learning, place learning  Weighting depends on Salience Certainty and variability with which information is encoded Validity  probabilities of finding objects given use of the information, derived from interaction with the environment  Weighting develops both in real time and in developmental time

13. Point 1: Evidence Against Encapsulation from Non-Human Animals  Monkeys use colored walls and large but not small features (a sensible choice given likely cue validity)  Other species Chickens Pigeons Fish  See Cheng & Newcombe, PBR 2005, for review

14. Point 2: Featural Cues Are Only Neglected in Tiny Rooms Cheng & Newcombe (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2005) Note: Perfect Performance = 100

15. Point 3: Use of Features Varies for Several Reasons  Activity Active motion focuses spatial attention Active motion leads to remodeling of hippocampal firing  Nature of landmarks More distal landmarks provide more useful and ecologically valid information Larger landmarks may be more salient and more likely to be stable

16. Room Within Room Studies  Small waist-high enclosure (Hermer- Spelke size) centered within “large” room (Learmonth et al. size)  Large room had one colored wall  Children stay within small enclosure Learmonth, Newcombe, Sheridan & Jones (Developmental Science, 2008)

17. How the Data Fit An Adaptive Combination Model Distal Action Target Proximal Age at Success Feature? Possible? to Feature? Hermer-Spelke No No Yes 6 years Learmonth Yes Yes Yes 18 months et al. (earliest tested) Study 1 Yes No No 6 years Studies 2 & 3 Yes No Yes 4 years

18. How the Data Fit An Adaptive Combination Model Distal Action Target Proximal Age at Success Feature? Possible? to Feature? Hermer-Spelke No No Yes 6 years Learmonth Yes Yes Yes 18 months et al. (earliest tested) Study 1 Yes No No 6 years Studies 2 & 3 Yes No Yes 4 years

19. How the Data Fit An Adaptive Combination Model Distal Action Target Proximal Age at Success Feature? Possible? to Feature? Hermer-Spelke No No Yes 6 years Learmonth Yes Yes Yes 18 months et al. (earliest tested) Study 1 Yes No No 6 years Studies 2 & 3 Yes No Yes 4 years

20. Point 4: Featural Cue Use is Easy to Get When Lacking Learmonth, Newcombe, Sheridan & Jones (Developmental Science, 2008) Similar finding: Twyman, Spetch & Friedman, (Developmental Psychology, 2007)

21. F C R N.06.33.52.10 Point 5: Spatial as Well as Verbal Shadowing Reduces Feature Use in Adults Ratliff & Newcombe, Cognitive Psychology, 2007 Also--Hupbach et al., Spatial Cognition & Computation, 2007 Usual results with white room and with colored wall but no concurrent task *

22. Point 6: New Evidence from Conflict Paradigms  When features are moved, subjects must choose a location based either on features or on geometry  These paradigms reveal the fundamental similarity of human adults to children and non- human animals Ratliff & Newcombe, Psychological Science, 2008

23. Conflict Procedure “There are four hiding spots in this room, one at each corner”

24. “I will hide a pair of keys in the same place every time”

25. ► 4 practice trials (target & landmark stable) ► Leave the room ► Brief delay ~ 2 minutes (drawing task) ► While the participant waits outside, the experimenter goes back into the room to move the landmark clockwise to the next adjacent wall ► Two conflict test trials Conflict Procedure

26. Where are the keys? A D BC

27. Experiment 1 N = 32 TRAINING (Between Subjects)TESTING Direct Landmark Indirect Landmark E G G L E G G L Small room (4x6ft) n = 8 Small room (4x6ft) n = 8 Large room (8x12ft) n = 8 (Landmark = L, Geometrically appropriate = G, and Error = E)

28. Adaptive Combination Predictions  When forced to choose one cue over the other (geometry vs. features), conflict test will result in a room size effect Distal landmarks are more valid in the larger room  Corners related to feature cues will be more likely to be chosen in the larger room Geometric cues are more salient in the smaller room  Geometric cues will be chosen most often in the smaller room

29.  Significant Room Size effect (p < 0.01) Geometric information guided reorientation in the small room Features guided reorientation in the larger room LARGE ROOM TRAINING & TESTING SMALL ROOM TRAINING & TESTING E.43 (.06).19 (.05).38 (.06) 0 G L G E.16 (.04).56 (.06).28 (.06) 0 G L G (Landmark = L, Geometrically appropriate = G, and Error = E) Results

30. Experiment 2  How does prior experience impact feature use in a conflict situation?  Replicates experiment 1 but switches room sizes between training and testing  Predictions: Replicate no effect of landmark location (direct/indirect) Training in the larger room will increase feature use among adults reorienting in the small room

31.  Cross-experiment comparisons: Significant effect of training Feature use increased in small room testing from Exp. 1 (small room training) to Exp. 2 (large room training) (Landmark = L, Geometrically appropriate = G, and Error = E) Results E.10 (.04).81 (.04).10 (.04) 0 G G SMALL ROOM TRAINING/ LARGE ROOM TESTING L LARGE ROOM TRAINING/ SMALL ROOM TESTING E.03 (.02).94 (.03).03 (.02) 0 G L G

32. Conclusions  Feature use is not associative: No effect of feature location (direct vs. indirect) in Exp 1 or 2  Experience is important As expected, large room experience boosts feature use for the small room test  Reorientation depends on process of combining weights associated with features and geometry Not simply relying on the most salient cue Although the conflict procedure does not allow direct assessment of combination

33. Point 7: Geometric Information May Be a Special Case of Relative Information  The modularity position predicts failure to reorient in the absence of geometric information  Is reorientation a more general discrimination of relative quantity task? Huttenlocher and Lourenco, 2007 Non-relative Cues Non-geometric, Relative Cue

34.  Multiple cues Area, spatial density, and number  Nominal versus ordinal scale “Cues which specify order along a magnitude scale (more, less) may be more easily mapped onto spatial position (left, right) than two distinct unordered properties (red, blue) which are mapped separately onto spatial position” (Huttenlocher & Lourenco, 2007) Why Might Relative Cues Be Easiest?

35.  Since the initial claims of modularity were made from animal research…  Will mice replicate this pattern of results? Is This Pattern True Across Species?

36. C57 mice – 4 per group Non-geometric Relative Cue Non-geometric Non-Relative Non-geometric Non-Relative

37. Results: Accuracy Twyman, Newcombe & Gould, J. Comparative Psychology, in press Small - Large 81% Yellow - Blue 69% Dots - Gray 69% Even though there is a trend for the relative cue group to be more accurate, there were no significant differences between groups

38. Results: Trials to Criterion Twyman, Newcombe & Gould, J. Comparative Psychology, in press Small versus Large 12 trials (0.00) Yellow versus Blue 38 trials (5.77) Dot versus Gray 33 trials (6.81) The small-large group learned the task significantly faster than either the yellow-blue or the dot-gray group.

39. Point 8: Use of Features is NOT Merely Associative  One might have thought 7 points were enough—but the modularity theorists have a comeback--

40. The Module Strikes Back  Lee, Shusterman & Spelke (2006) argue that—  Search behavior following disorientation depends on two distinct processes: a modular reorientation process…and an associative process that directly links landmarks to locations (p. 581)

41. Return of the Jedi  Problems with Lee et al. Small moveable landmarks Defining quite small area  Alternative way to test the two step hypothesis Use of colored wall in an octagon with alternating short and long sides to discriminate among 3 all white corners

42. The Octagonal Space B D A C

43. Photo of the Octagon

44. Starting with An All-White Octagon  Questions Can children use geometry in a more complex figure?  YES if total GC choices > 50% Can children use geometry in a figure without an axis of principal symmetry?  YES if total GC choices > 50% Methodologically, have children been successfully disoriented?  YES if correct choice NOT > average of other GC choices

45. Data from All-White Octagon Newcombe et al., Developmental Science, in press  At left, we see that both 2- and 3-year-old children were reliably greater than chance in choosing geometrically correct corners  At right, we see a slight and non-reliable ability to choose the correct corner from among the 4 geometrically correct corners

46. Data from Octagon with Colored Wall Newcombe et al., Developmental Science, in press  At left, we see that both 3- and 5year-old children were reliably greater than chance in choosing geometrically correct corners  At right, we now see a reliable ability to choose the correct corner from among the 4 geometrically correct corners

47. What About the Targets in All-White Corners?  Correct choices reliably greater than average of other GC corners 35% versus 14% at 3 years 38% versus 10% at 5 years  These data show that young children do in fact use features to reorient

48. Can Children Use Features ALONE? Newcombe et al., Developmental Science, in press X X X X X X On these 2 conditions, children averaged 50%, reliably greater than chance (33%) In this condition, children averaged 64%, reliably greater than chance (50%) Three Hiding Boxes Two Hiding Boxes

49. Specific Conclusions  Strong evidence for coding of geometric information  Little evidence for an encapsulated geometric module or the role of language in puncturing it  Good evidence that different types of spatial information are routinely (though not invariably) combined  Combination process depends on Cue salience Encoding variability and certainty Acquiring information on cue validity through action and experience

50. General Conclusion  We can analyze spatial navigation and orientation as an evolved mental skill without postulating Encapsulated modularity Highly specific innate endowment