Three Types of Environmental Representations and Individual Differences in Spatial Navigation (original) (raw)
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Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2016
This study aimed to relate two different forms of survey-based representations encoded after real-world route learning to the differential use of allocentric and egocentric frames of reference, and a navigation strategy of egocentric spatial updating that focuses on the computations of self-to-object relations. Using sketchmaps and assessments of spatial and landmark knowledge, Study 1 implicated the existence of allocentric and egocentric survey-based representations that preserved survey knowledge of the environment based on the primary engagement of allocentric and egocentric frames of reference respectively. In Study 2, an egocentric spatial updating strategy scale was designed as part of a new self-report Navigation Strategy Questionnaire (NSQ), and validated with regards to the behavioral measures of spatial and landmark knowledge. Notably, egocentric-survey map sketchers reported the highest scores on this new scale among three groups of map sketchers, supporting the proposal that they were highly involved in egocentric spatial processing during route learning.
Honor's Thesis, National University of Singapore, 2011
A new instrument, the Navigational Strategy Questionnaire (NSQ), was designed to assess individual difference on three scales measuring spatial updating, allocentric, and landmark-dependent navigational strategies. As existing navigational assessments usually measure procedural and survey knowledge acquired from navigation, this questionnaire includes a new scale measuring spatial updating strategy, which attempts to identify it as having cognitive processes distinct from those of other strategies that are recruited for the representational knowledge of large-scale environments. Principal component analyses revealed four independent factors: three of which clearly reflected the three aforementioned strategies, and an additional fourth factor evaluating map usage. All four scales of the NSQ demonstrated adequate internal and test-retest reliablilities. Based on sketch-map drawings which assessed the different types of environmental representations, illustrators of three-dimensional (3-D) sketch-maps portrayed accurate spatial configuration and topographical features, and scored the highest on the NSQ spatial updating scale. That implied a functional role of spatial updating in the formation of realistic spatial representations of large-scale environments as seen from the egocentric perspective. Further assessments using two spatial working memory tests provided convergent and discriminant validities for all four scales, and a virtual tunnel task demonstrated predictive validities for both spatial updating and allocentric scales.
There are marked individual differences in how effectively people construct cognitive maps in both real world and virtual environment settings (e.g., Blajenkova, Motes, & Kozhevnikov, 2005; Chai & Jacobs, 2010; Ishikawa & Montello, 2006; Wen, Ishikawa, & Sato, 2011). However, these individual differences are poorly understood and difficult to assess except by self report. In this study, we studied spatial learning in a virtual environment (VE) consisting of several buildings arrayed along two disconnected routes and investigated how acquisition of spatial knowledge relates to self-reported sense of direction on the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale (SBSOD) and psychometric measures of spatial ability. We also compared the pattern of results in the VE to findings from the real world environment on which the VE was modeled (Schinazi, Nardi, Newcombe, Shipley, & Epstein, in press). Results suggest that more accurate pointing between buildings on different routes correlates with self-reported navigation ability, validating the SBSOD. However, the SBSOD did not distinguish between participants who had more or less difficulty with pointing accurately between pairs of buildings on the same route. Comparing results from the VE to the real world revealed similar patterns of learning, despite higher overall accuracy in the real world. Thus, we confirm the existence of individual differences in the ability to construct a cognitive map of an environment, characterize these differences more completely than is so far possible with self-report, and introduce an objective behavioral measure of navigation ability that can be used as a research tool.
Honors Thesis, National University of Singapore, 2011
Environmental representations have typically been categorized into procedural descriptions and survey knowledge. Based on recent findings about allocentric and egocentric encoding of spatial relations, we hypothesized that survey knowledge could be further classified into surveyallocentric and survey-egocentric representations (depending on which encoding the person uses). Our study examined the distinction in survey representations using map drawing task. The second goal was to examine how this distinction in environmental representations relates to individual differences in allocentric and egocentric spatial abilities, using spatial visualization and spatial orientation computerized tasks. The third goal was to explore how these environmental representations differ in landmark knowledge, using landmark recognition and landmark directional tasks. The map drawings were reliably classified into procedural, survey-allocentric, and survey-egocentric representations, based on the encoding of spatial relations. Individuals who drew survey-egocentric maps tended to perform more accurately and faster on egocentric spatial orientation task than those who drew procedural maps. Significant differences were found in accuracy and reaction times on landmark tasks between different types of landmarks: no-choice versus active, non-cultural versus cultural, permanent versus temporary, and scenes versus individual landmarks. There were no significant differences in landmark recognition and directional tasks between individuals with different environmental representations.
Egocentric organization of spatial activities in imagined navigation
Memory & Cognition, 2003
Studies onspatial frameworks suggest that the way we locate objects in imagined environments is influenced by the physical and functional properties of the world and our body. The present study provides evidence that such an influence also characterizes imagined navigation. In Experiment 1, participants followed spatial directions to construct an imagined path, while either keeping constant or updating their orientation at each step. A pattern of step times diagnostic of spatial frameworks was obtained in the updated-orientation but not in the constant-orientation condition. In Experiment 2, participants performed the updated-orientation condition with two levels of external support for the reference frame being used. Step times conformed to the predictions of spatial frameworks in both conditions. Both experiments also provided support that the processes involved in imagined navigation exhibit the operator-operand dynamics of other mental skills previously documented in the mental arithmetic domain. These results reinforce Piaget’s (1954) notion that spatial displacements and integer arithmetic share a set of structural characteristics.