Heading south with a north-up map: A choice processing analysis of map alignment effects |
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Authors: | Michael Tlauka Melissa Prince Louis Sullivan Jason S. McCarley |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia;2. School of Psychological Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA |
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Abstract: | 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. |
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Keywords: | spatial memory computational models map learning orientation specificity Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model |
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