Gary L. Allen is on the faculty of the Department of Psychology at the University of South Carolina.  During 20 years of research on spatial cognition and its development, he has used a variety of methods (from lab to field studies) and studied a variety of populations (from young children to older adults) in an effort to understand the many facets of the spatial domain in human cognition and behavior.  Most of his empirical work has concentrated on how route knowledge is acquired and communicated.  Recently, he has expanded this focus to consider various wayfinding tasks and the means used to accomplish them.

References:

Allen, G. L., & Ondracek, P. J. (1995).  Age-sensitive cognitive abilities related to children's acquisition of spatial knowledge.  Developmental Psychology, 31, 934-945.

Allen, G. L., Kirasic, K. C., Dobson, S. H., Long, R. G., & Beck, S. (1996).  Predicting environmental learning from spatial abilities:  An indirect route.  Intelligence, 22, 327-355.

Allen, G. L. (1999).  Spatial abilities, cognitive maps, and wayfinding: Bases for individual differences in spatial cognition and behavior.  In R. Golledge (Ed.), Wayfinding behavior: Cognitive maps and other spatial processes (pp. 46-80).  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.