Which way did s(he) go?: Following a trail of footprints should help

Utilization of a footprint trail for locating a hidden person may indicate the extension of semiotics to the spatial domain of search. We sought to determine whether young children implemented footprint tracking, and found that at 3-years they successfully tracked footprints on only 3% of trials, at 4-years on 9% of trials, and at 5-years on 41% of trials. Examination of search procedures revealed a set of strategies and biases that prevailed prior to successful footprint tracking, and that may compete with the adoption of a strategy based on treating footprints as symbols of a traveler's movements.