Cognitive resources are information-processing capabilities and knowledge that can be used to perform mental tasks.  Previous research has shown very convincingly that generic information-processing capabilities, such as processing speed and working memory capability (Fry & Hale, 1996; Kail, 1991), show age-related increases over the course of childhood.  Also, it is clear that children acquire knowledge of specific facts, effective procedures, general concepts, and useful strategies as they progress through elementary school.

 It is reasonable to hypothesize that the two categories of cognitive resources, information-processing capabilities on the one hand and various forms of knowledge on the other hand, have an interactive relationship.  Changes in processing speed largely account for age-related differences in working memory capability, and these two information-processing resources together exert a strong influence on the performance of tasks ranging from simple memorization to logical reasoning.  However, research on skill acquisition shows that with repeated exercise, the use of specific facts and effective procedures becomes more automatic, with the consequence of freeing information-processing resources for other tasks that can be performed simultaneously (Neves &Anderson, 1981).  Also, repeatedly applied concepts and strategies can become imbedded in task-solving procedures, the result being the development of higher-order cognitive structures that facilitate situationally specific skilled performance (Ericsson, 1996).  Thus, knowledge of various types results in resource available because of automaticity and because of what has been referred to as skill- or task-dedicated long-term working memory (Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995).

 The implications of this resource-based view of cognitive development for the spatial domain in particular are largely unexplored.   Tasks with predominantly spatial components have been used to assess processing speed, working memory capability, and even logical reasoning skill (Fry & Hale, 1996), but the emphasis has been primarily on validating a general model of cognitive change rather than on differentiating among domains.  Recently, it was suggested that the domain of spatial abilities could be considered as a group of functionally related families.  One of these families concerns situations involving a stationary individual and manipulable objects; another concerns situations involving either a stationary or mobile individual and moving objects; and a third has to do with situations involving a mobile individual and large, stationary objects (Allen, 1999).   The cognitive resources pressed into service in the context of any of these families has not been well specified (Allen, 1999), particularly with respect to the third family, which concerns wayfinding and orientation in large spaces (Allen, Kirasic, Dobson, Long, & Beck, 1996).  Consequently, one is on solid conceptual ground in positing that information-processing capabilities and existing factual, conceptual, and strategic knowledge are crucially involved in the development of spatial skills, but it is difficult to tell a convincing story of how these resources interact in the context of a specific task.
 How cognitive development in the spatial domain impacts the transition from childhood to the workplace is largely a matter of informed speculation.  Psychometric tests of spatial abilities have demonstrated validity for careers in engineering, architecture, aviation, dentistry, surgery, and others involving concepts and applications from geometry.   Each of these work areas involve extended periods of preparation and training, thus making the transition from childhood to the workplace a lengthy one in such cases.  However, in a very general sense, several factors suggest that change is on the horizon with respect to children’s role in the workplace.  First, the control and use of information is becoming an increasingly substantial part of the economy.  Second, improvements in communication technology have made information accessible to the public at large, children included.  Third, by middle childhood most children are perfectly capable of acquiring expertise regarding a defined factual knowledge base.  Taken together, these factors suggest that although children may not be engineers and dentists in the near future, their general status as producers and consumers in the global economy may be subject to rapid change.

 How can knowledge of children’s cognitive resources be related to speculation about children’s future role in the workplace?    One way of attempting to relate the two is to think about the dialectic involving information-processing resources as universal constraints and knowledge resources as means of overcoming universal constraints. The rate at which new knowledge is acquired during childhood is constrained to some extent by cognitive speed and working memory capability.  Curriculum design and training/educational procedures should obviously accommodate this developmental reality.  On the knowledge side of things, we need more insight into the process of elaborating upon central concepts (see Chi, Hutchinson, & Robin, 1989, for example).  In geographic space, the concept of Euclidean spatial relations is extremely useful for organizing spatial experience.  In contrast, cyberspaces are notoriously non-Euclidean.  What are the central utilitarian concepts in these spaces, within the Internet, for example?  One of the major challenges in the future workplace may be mapping the consequences of transactions done in cyberspaces onto the logistical realities of geographic space.  This seems a formidable undertaking for curriculum designers and education practitioners.

 Information technology has changed the face of work in post-industrial societies, and logically, it is changing the face of the educational experience designed to prepare future workers.  Fortunately, technological advances have placed some remarkable tools at the disposal of educators.  However, those tools came with no user’s manual in terms of societal goals to which they are to be applied.  Basic research from Geography and Psychology can provide insight into fundamental cognitive and behavioral phenomena, but the integration of this insight into an effective curriculum depends ultimately upon the delineation of societal goals.  In an increasingly pluralistic society, getting political leaders, the educational establishment, and business forces to agree upon such goals is challenging, to put it mildly.

References

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.
 
Chi, M. T. H., Hutchinson, J. E., & Rosin, A. F. (1989).  How inferences about novel domain-related concepts can be constrained by structured knowledge.  Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 35, 27-62.
Ericcson, K. A. (1996).  The acquisition of expert performance: An intorduction to some of the issues.  In K. Ericsson et al. (Eds.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games (pp. 1-50).  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Ericcson, K. A., & Kintsch, W. (1995).  Long-term working memory.  Psychological Review, 102, 211-245.

Fry, A. F., & Hale, S.  (1996).  Processing speed, working memory, and fluid intelligence: Evidence for a developmental cascade.  Psychological Science, 7, 237-241.

Kail, R. (1991).  Developmental change in speed of processing during childhood and adolescence.  Psychological Bulletin, 109, 490-501.

Neves, D., & Anderson, J. R. (1981).  Knowledge compilation: Mechanisms for the automatization of cognitive skills.  In J. Anderson (Ed.).  The acquisition of cognitive skill (pp. 57-84).  Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.