Interface Familiarity Restores Active Advantage in a Virtual Exploration and Reconstruction Task in Children

Abstract

Active exploration is reportedly better than passive observation of spatial displacements in real environments, for the acquisition of relational spatial information, especially by children. However, a previous study using a virtual environment (VE) showed that children in a passive observation condition performed better than actives when asked to reconstruct in reality the environment explored virtually. Active children were unpractised in using the input device, which may have detracted from any active advantage, since input device operation may be regarded as a concurrent task, increasing cognitive load and spatial working memory demands. To examine this possibility, 7–8-year-old children in the present study were given 5 minutes of training with the joystick input device. When compared with passive participants for spatial learning, active participants gave a better performance than passives, placing objects significantly more accurately. The importance of interface training when using VEs for assessment and training was discussed.     

Which way is the bookstore? A closer look at the judgments of relative directions task

We present a detailed analysis of a widely used assay in human spatial cognition, the judgments of relative direction (JRD) task. We conducted three experiments involving virtual navigation interspersed with the JRD task, and included confidence judgments and map drawing as additional metrics. We also present a technique for assessing the similarity of the cognitive representations underlying performance on the JRD and map-drawing tasks. Our results support the construct validity of the JRD task and its connection to allocentric representation. Additionally, we found that chance performance on the JRD task depends on the distribution of the angles of participants’ responses, rather than being constant and 90 degrees. Accordingly, we present a method for better determining chance performance.     

Seeing the Forest or the Trees? Shifting Categorical Effects in Map Memory

People use spatial and nonspatial information to structure memory for an environment. Two experiments explored interactions between spatial and social categories on map memory when mediated by retrieval (Experiment 1) and encoding (Experiment 2) demands. Participants studied a map depicting business locations (including proprietors' race). In Experiment 1, participants completed two memory tasks, one globally focused and the other locally focused. The global task compressed, while the local task expanded, within-category similarity. Furthermore, processing styles carried over to the subsequent task. Experiment 2 emphasized either the spatial or social category during encoding, which increased that category's weighting in memory. These results extend the work of Maddox, Rapp, Brion, and Taylor, suggesting that retrieval and encoding demands can shift how these categories affect spatial memory.     

List of reviewers

Studies of map-learning have suggested that viewing maps from several orientations results in orientation independent encoding. The present investigation examined this claim. Three groups of participants were presented with a map from one orientation, or four orientations, or with the map constantly rotating. Participants' spatial knowledge was then assessed in a pointing task. Response latencies were fastest following presentations of the map from a single orientation. Contrary to earlier results, multiple views led to orientation dependent encoding when account was taken of participants'preferred map orientations. The findings are consistent with the notion that similar mental representations are acquired following single and multiple map views.     

Route generation and description using the notions of object's influence area and spatial conceptual map

In the GRAAD Project we aimed at creatinga system which could generate route directions thatare comparable to route directions created by humanparticipants. With this goal in mind, we started froma linguistic and cognitive study of route directionsproduced by people and the study of cognitive modelsof mental maps. We proposed a new qualitative spatialmodel that can support the spatial properties of humanroute directions. This model is based on the notion ofobject's influence area which is used to modelneighborhood, orientation and distance. The proposedapproach relies on the manipulation of spatialentities in a spatial conceptual map (SCM) which isthe computarized analog of a mental map used bypeople. We developped the GRAAD System, software thatgenerates routes in a SCM and describes them innatural language. Finally, we conducted an experimentin order to compare GRAAD's route directions androutes described by human participants in similarexperimental conditions. GRAAD's output was notdistinguishable from route directions created by humanparticipants. In this paper we present the mainresults obtained during all phases of the GRAADProject.     

On early cognitive mapping

In this paper we examine the nature of theearly cognitive map – the beginnings of acognitive map formed from one's earlyimpressions of the environment one is in. Twodistinct paradigms have emerged from ourstudies of what information is initially identified in a cognitive map. The first, which weterm a space-based approach, emphasises makingexplicit the spatial extent of the currentlocal environment. The second emphasises makingexplicit the relationships between objects inthe local environment and we call this anobject-based approach. For both paradigms weexamine the psychological literature to findsupport for the approach and the roboticists'attempts at implementing the idea. We arguethat a space-based approach is the moreappropriate way to compute an early cognitivemap. In particular, we find that Siegel andWhite's (1975) object-based hypothesis, whichstates that the developmental progression of acognitive map is from landmark to route tosurvey map, is not supported. The space-basedparadigm underpins our own work in this areaand we outline our own space-based theory forcomputing an early cognitive map.     

Spatial Reorientation: Effects of Verbal and Spatial Shadowing

ABSTRACT

Spatially disoriented adults flexibly conjoin geometric information (macroscopic shape) and nongeometric information (e.g., the color of a wall) to re-establish their bearings. It has been proposed that non-geometric information is incorporated into a geometric frame of reference through the use of spatial language. Support for this assumption comes from dual-task studies in which participants failed to use non-geometric features when they shadowed a verbal message concurrent to the reorientation task. These studies were performed in small rectangular spaces. In contrast, our study was performed in a large square room. Experiment 1 showed that verbal shadowing did not disrupt non-geometric feature use in this environment. In Experiment 2, we found that a spatial shadowing task that required the encoding of frequently changing spatial directions impaired reorientation behavior. Our study shows that nongeometric information can be used for reorientation without recourse to linguistic processes, and suggests that the use of non-geometric features is dependent upon a spatial coding process.     

Learning to Reach to Locations Encoded from Imaging Displays

We examined the use of hand gestures while people solved spatial reasoning problem in which they had to infer motion from static diagrams (mental animation problems). In Experiment 1, participants were asked to think aloud while solving mental animation problems. They gestured on more than 90% of problems, and most gestures expressed information about the component motions that was not stated in words. Two further experiments examined whether the gestures functioned in the mechanical inference process, or whether they merely served functions of expressing or communicating the results of this process. In these experiments, we examined the effects of instructions to think aloud, restricting participants' hand motions, and secondary tasks on mental animation performance. Although participants who were instructed to think aloud gestured more than control groups, some gestures occurred even in control conditions. A concurrent spatial tapping task impaired performance on mechanical reasoning, whereas a simple tapping task and restricting hand motions did not. These results indicate that gestures are a natural way of expressing the results of mental animation processes and suggest that spatial working memory and premotor representations are involved in mental animation. They provide no direct evidence that gestures are functional in the thought process itself, but do not rule out a role for overt gestures in this type of spatial thinking.     

Heading south with a north-up map: A choice processing analysis of map alignment effects

This study employed an information accumulation model of choice reaction times to investigate alignment effects in mental representations of maps. University students studied a map from a single orientation (with north at the top). In a subsequent two-choice reaction time task, the students’ spatial knowledge of the map was assessed employing spatial left/right judgments, which were made from imagined perspectives that were either north-aligned or south-aligned. Data showed a standard alignment effect, favoring north- over south-aligned trials. To examine the locus of this effect, data were fit using the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model of speeded decisions (Brown & Heathcote, 2008). Of interest were three model parameters: drift rate, the speed at which evidence accumulates toward a response; response threshold, the amount of evidence demanded from the decision maker before selecting a response; and non-decision time, the time consumed by pre- and postdecisional processes. The best-fitting model suggested that non-decision time accounted for the alignment effect. The difference in non-decision time between north and south-aligned judgments suggests a mental alignment stage on south-aligned trials, accounting for the longer reaction times for judgements misaligned with the presented north orientation of the map.     

Contributing Factors to Temporal and Spatial Associations in Mental Representations of Maps

Abstract

The present work explores an interactive model of spatial and temporal information in map memory. In four experiments, participants learned a map with temporal and spatial information confounded or unconfounded. Attentional and representational levels of information were made apparent through tasks that tap spatial, temporal, or other information. Learning criteria emphasizing sequential order or location imposed differential weighting of the information types in memory. Results indicate that map memory is spatial, but also interacts with the order in which map locations are encountered. Findings show flexibility in allocating attention and information indexing of location and sequential order information in map learning.     

The Influence of Landmarks and Pre-exposure to a Structural Map During the Process of Spatial Knowledge Acquisition: A Study with Children and Adults in a Virtual Environment

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of featural information (landmarks) and geometric information (pre-exposure to a structural map) and their possible interaction during the process of spatial knowledge acquisition of 8- and 11-year-old children and adults in a virtual environment. The study confirmed the well-known result of a developmental achievement in spatial cognition from childhood to adulthood. Although landmarks and the pre-exposure to a structural map did not affect the time to learn a specific route, they influenced the use of behavior in spatial learning and eased the acquisition of spatial knowledge measured by a route reversal and map-drawing tasks. Children and adults are able to integrate featural and geometric information in the spatial knowledge acquisition process in an environmental space, but their integration depends on the spatial processing stages that are investigated. Moreover, it was successfully demonstrated that the use of desktop virtual environments seems to be appropriate to investigate the development of spatial cognition.     

Spatial Thinking Across the College Curriculum: A Report on a Specialist Meeting

This report presents findings from a specialist meeting of spatially-minded researchers and administrators from education and industry to consider prospects for introducing courses and curricula on spatial thinking in higher education. More than 40 participants explored the rationale for expanding student exposure to concepts, tools, and applications of spatial reasoning across a range of science, engineering, and humanities disciplines. The focus was on what we know and what we need to know to make the case for space, underscoring basic research on what is meant by spatial thinking and on variations in the spatial reasoning skills required in different domains of knowledge. The need for rigorous assessments of learning outcomes associated with different approaches to teaching spatial thinking was emphasized.     

Spatial Influence of Environmental Axes in a Baseball Field

Abstract

We investigated the influence of environmental axes in a baseball field. In Experiment 1, participants walked either a path in the prototypical orientation (home plate to second base) or one which was rotated 225°. Recall for object locations was best when participants imagined themselves aligned with axes salient from the experienced orientation. In Experiment 2, when learning was through a route text, there was less of an influence of environmental axes. In Experiment 3, when participants walked both paths, memories were good for the atypical orientation, suggesting that task-specific spatial cues can be more influential than a prior conceptual north.     

Effects of Communication Methods on Communication Patterns and Performance in a Remote Spatial Orientation Task

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to examine the impact of communication methods (text-only, audio-only, and audio-plus-video) on communication patterns and effectiveness in a 2-person remote spatial orientation task. The task required a pair of participants to figure out the cardinal direction of a target object by communicating spatial information and perspectives. Results showed that overall effectiveness in the audio-only condition was better than the text-only and audio-plus-video conditions, and communication patterns were more predictive of errors than individual differences in spatial abilities. Discourse analysis showed that participants in the audio-plus-video condition performed less mental transformation of spatial information when communicating, which led to more interpretation errors by the listener. Participants in the text-only conditions performed less confirmation and made more errors by misreading their own display. Results suggested that speakers in the audio-plus-video condition minimized effort by communicating spatial information based on their own perspective but speakers in the audio-only and text-only conditions would more likely communicate transformed spatial information. Analysis of gestures in the audio-plus-video condition confirmed that iconic gestures tended to co-occur with spatial transformation. Iconic gesture rates were negatively correlated with transformation errors, indicating that iconic gestures more likely co-occurred with successful communication of spatial transformation. Results show that when visual interactive feedback is available, speakers tend to adopt egocentric spatial perspectives to minimize effort in mental transformation and rely on the feedback to ensure that the hearer correctly interprets the information. When visual interactive feedback is not available, speakers will put more effort in transforming spatial information to help the hearer to understand the information. The current result demonstrated that allowing two persons to see and communicate with each other during a remote spatial reasoning task can lead to more errors because of the use of a suboptimal communication strategy.     

Individual Differences in Representational Precision Predict Spatial Working Memory Span

Perhaps the signature feature of working memory is that it is limited. In the same subjects, we used two different retrieval tasks to independently measure two different limits of spatial memory. Precision was measured by asking participants to localize a missing target item among a field of other targets and distracters. Capacity was measured with a similar task where participants identified, rather than localized, a set of remembered targets from within a larger set of identical items. Across participants, the precision of localization was positively correlated with the number of successfully retrieved items. These data suggest that an individual's representational capacity may ultimately be constrained by their ability to form precise representations of space.     

Qualitative Spatial Reasoning for Topological Map Learning

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the application of qualitative spatial reasoning methods for learning the topological map of an unknown environment. We develop a topological mapping framework that achieves robustness against ambiguity in the available information by tracking all possible graph hypotheses simultaneously. We then exploit spatial reasoning to reduce the space of possible hypotheses. The considered constraints are qualitative direction information and the assumption that the map is planar. We investigate the effects of absolute and relative direction information using two different spatial calculi and combine the approach with a real mapping system based on Voronoi graphs.     

Path visualization: a method for objective measurement of spatial visualization

ABSTRACT

The ability to mentally represent spatial information is a fundamental cognitive process. To many people, this process feels a bit like visual perception, hence the term ‘spatial visualization’. In this paper, we describe a method for measuring the accuracy of spatial visualization, specifically visualization of a complex path in imaginary space. A critical feature of this method (called Path Visualization) is that it relies on the detection of intersections in a visualized path. Intersection detection is an inherently spatial task that requires a spatial representation. In this paper, we show how the Path Visualization method works, and how it can be customized to address several key research issues in human spatial cognition.     

How Navigational Aids Impair Spatial Memory: Evidence for Divided Attention

Abstract

Research has demonstrated navigational aids impair spatial memory, but has not considered important spatial cognitive concepts. For example, impairment may stem from spatial perspective switches between route-based aids and survey-based memory assessments. Further, the verbal format of aid instructions may selectively interfere with verbal working memory (VWM). To address these potential explanations, participants navigated desktop virtual environments in a goal-directed manner. In each within-participants condition, participants either navigated with a verbal or tonal aid that presented mixed spatial perspective instructions or without aid. Both aids yielded slight navigational advantages and steep spatial memory costs despite their mixed perspective instructions. The equivalent impairment between information formats suggests navigational aids impair spatial memory by dividing attention rather than selective interference of VWM.