Child Development, September/October 2007, Volume 78, Number 5, Pages 1559 – 1571 Location, Location, Location: Development of Spatiotemporal Sequence Learning in Infancy Natasha Z. Kirkham Birkbeck College, University of London, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development Jonathan A. Slemmer The Ohio State University Daniel C. Richardson University of Reading Scott P. Johnson University of California, Los Angeles We investigated infants’ sensitivity to spatiotemporal structure. In Experiment 1, circles appeared in a statistically defined spatial pattern. At test 11-month-olds, but not 8-month-olds, looked longer at a novel spatial sequence. Experiment 2 presented different color/shape stimuli, but only the location sequence was violated during test; 8-month-olds preferred the novel spatial structure, but 5-month-olds did not. In Experiment 3, the locations but not color/shape pairings were constant at test; 5-month-olds showed a novelty preference. Experiment 4 examined ‘‘online learning’’: We recorded eye movements of 8-month-olds watching a spatiotemporal sequence. Saccade latencies to predictable locations decreased. We argue that temporal order statistics involving informative spatial relations become available to infants during the first year after birth, assisted by multiple cues. An important aspect of the ability to perceive the visual environment as coherent and intelligible is an understanding of objects’ spatial locations and what their present locations might predict about future events. Acquisition of this type of knowledge is essential for motion perception and for the produc- tion of action sequences, because one has to learn not only which actions are appropriate, but also where and when they should be performed. For example, if, while looking out the window of your house, you see your partner walking up the path to the front door, you can reasonably predict that you will see him next in the doorway of your house. You can use this information to guide appropriate anticipatory behav- ior, such as moving to a location that provides a view of the door to greet your partner as he or she comes inside. In other words, each visual event is temporally related both to the previous event and to the future event and occurs within a spatial context. Spatiotemporal Sequence Learning in Adults Recognition and exploitation of patterns of events to guide behavior relies on spatiotemporal sequence learning. Adults are competent at learning many kinds of complex spatiotemporal sequences (e.g., Chun & Jiang, 1998; Cleeremans, Destrebecqz, & Boyer, 1998; Conway & Christiansen, 2005; Howard, Mutter, & Howard, 1993; Mayr, 1996). Many of these studies were designed to examine sensitivity to the statistical or probabilistic structure of the input. In serial reac- tion time studies, for example, observers view a single repetitive stimulus presented sequentially at different locations and respond to each position by pressing a corresponding key (e.g., Nissen & Bullemer, 1987). Stimulus locations may follow a particular spatial and temporal pattern that a participant may be unable to describe explicitly, yet reaction times typically decrease reliably across trials. In contrast, reaction times show no improvement when stimuli are pre- sented in a random order (Cohen, Ivry, & Keele, 1990; Curran & Keele, 1993; Nissen & Bullemer, 1987). This research was supported by NSF grant BCS-0094814 and NIH grant R01-HD40432 to SPJ. We gratefully acknowledge the efforts of the infants and parents who participated in the studies. We thank also Lisa Smythe for help with recruiting the infant participants and data collection. It is with great sadness that we note that Jonathan Slemmer died in February 2006. He was an invaluable part of all of our studies; his presence is sorely missed. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Natasha Z. Kirkham, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK. Electronic mail may be sent to n.kirkham@ bbk.ac.uk. # 2007 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2007/7805-0010