A study was made to investigate the hypothesis that the ability to determine, on a map, where one is located and in which direction one is headed, requires an understanding of the ways in which views change from different locations and orientations. Approximately 200 kindergarten through second-grade children were first tested individually for their understanding of projective spatial concepts. Children were given a perspective-taking task in which colored disks and cylinders replaced the traditional papier-mache mountains, and were asked which of six photographs had been taken from specified locations around the array. Additionally, children were shown a series of locations on a model of a landscape and were asked to reproduce those locations on an identical model, once when the two models were in spatial alignment and once when the child's model had been rotated by 180 degrees. With an exception or two, results showed the anticipated patterns of lower performance for unaligned rather than aligned conditions. Children were later given a variety of mapping tasks as part of their regular classroom instruction. Data from the directional mapping tasks were consistent with predictions based on Piagetian theory. (RH)