Are Spatial Memories for Familiar Environments Orientation Dependent?
In one experiment we examined the organizational structure of spatial memories for familiar environments, comparing it directly with that for unfamiliar environments. Participants in the familiar condition pointed from imagined perspectives towards objects in their own rooms and their performance wa...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ubiquity Press
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Cognition |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.journalofcognition.org/articles/147 |
| _version_ | 1818957867166728192 |
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| author | Adamantini Hatzipanayioti Alexia Galati Marianna Pagkratidou Marios N. Avraamides |
| author_facet | Adamantini Hatzipanayioti Alexia Galati Marianna Pagkratidou Marios N. Avraamides |
| author_sort | Adamantini Hatzipanayioti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In one experiment we examined the organizational structure of spatial memories for familiar environments, comparing it directly with that for unfamiliar environments. Participants in the familiar condition pointed from imagined perspectives towards objects in their own rooms and their performance was compared to that of matched controls in an unfamiliar condition who carried out the same task after studying the same rooms in immersive Virtual Reality. In both conditions, participants were faster and more accurate in pointing from imagined perspectives that were aligned with the geometry of the room (vs. not aligned), suggesting the presence of orientation-dependent representations. Whereas in the unfamiliar condition pointing performance was best along a single axis, performance in the familiar condition was about equal across all 4 orientations that were aligned with the geometric structure of the room. Moreover, performance in the familiar condition was influenced by the orientation from which participants started to preview the room prior to testing; in contrast, in the unfamiliar condition performance was not influenced by the orientation from which encoding started. This finding suggests that post-encoding situational factors (e.g., the starting orientation from which an environment is previewed) can prime the accessibility of information in well-established long-term spatial memories. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T11:16:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0066a38e13294e3386e4a42482984b1a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2514-4820 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T11:16:40Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Cognition |
| spelling | doaj.art-0066a38e13294e3386e4a42482984b1a2022-12-21T19:42:36ZengUbiquity PressJournal of Cognition2514-48202021-01-014110.5334/joc.147158Are Spatial Memories for Familiar Environments Orientation Dependent?Adamantini Hatzipanayioti0Alexia Galati1Marianna Pagkratidou2Marios N. Avraamides3Center for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), Dresden; Unit of Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Dresden; Technische Universität, DresdenDepartment of Psychological Science, University of North Carolina at CharlotteDepartment of Psychology, University of CyprusCYENS Centre of Excellence, Nicosia; Department of Psychology & Center for Applied Neuroscience, University of CyprusIn one experiment we examined the organizational structure of spatial memories for familiar environments, comparing it directly with that for unfamiliar environments. Participants in the familiar condition pointed from imagined perspectives towards objects in their own rooms and their performance was compared to that of matched controls in an unfamiliar condition who carried out the same task after studying the same rooms in immersive Virtual Reality. In both conditions, participants were faster and more accurate in pointing from imagined perspectives that were aligned with the geometry of the room (vs. not aligned), suggesting the presence of orientation-dependent representations. Whereas in the unfamiliar condition pointing performance was best along a single axis, performance in the familiar condition was about equal across all 4 orientations that were aligned with the geometric structure of the room. Moreover, performance in the familiar condition was influenced by the orientation from which participants started to preview the room prior to testing; in contrast, in the unfamiliar condition performance was not influenced by the orientation from which encoding started. This finding suggests that post-encoding situational factors (e.g., the starting orientation from which an environment is previewed) can prime the accessibility of information in well-established long-term spatial memories.https://www.journalofcognition.org/articles/147spatial memoryperspectivetakingvirtual realityorientationpointing |
| spellingShingle | Adamantini Hatzipanayioti Alexia Galati Marianna Pagkratidou Marios N. Avraamides Are Spatial Memories for Familiar Environments Orientation Dependent? Journal of Cognition spatial memory perspectivetaking virtual reality orientation pointing |
| title | Are Spatial Memories for Familiar Environments Orientation Dependent? |
| title_full | Are Spatial Memories for Familiar Environments Orientation Dependent? |
| title_fullStr | Are Spatial Memories for Familiar Environments Orientation Dependent? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Are Spatial Memories for Familiar Environments Orientation Dependent? |
| title_short | Are Spatial Memories for Familiar Environments Orientation Dependent? |
| title_sort | are spatial memories for familiar environments orientation dependent |
| topic | spatial memory perspectivetaking virtual reality orientation pointing |
| url | https://www.journalofcognition.org/articles/147 |
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