Egocentric and nonegocentric coding in memory for spatial layout: Evidence from scene recognition

Much contemporary research has suggested that memories for spatial layout are stored with a preferred orientation. The present research examined whether spatial memories are also stored with a preferred viewpoint position. Participants viewed images of an arrangement of objects taken from a single viewpoint and subsequently were tested on their ability to recognize the arrangement from novel viewpoints that had been translated in either the lateral or the depth dimension. Lateral and forward displacements of the viewpoint resulted in increasing response latencies and errors. Backward displacement showed no such effect, nor did lateral translation that resulted in a centered “canonical” view of the arrangement. These results further constrain the specificity of spatial memory, while also providing some evidence that nonegocentric spatial information is coded in memory.

[1]  George Sperling,et al.  The information available in brief visual presentations. , 1960 .

[2]  E. Averbach,et al.  Short-term memory in vision , 1961 .

[3]  L. Nadel,et al.  The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map , 1978 .

[4]  W. Chase,et al.  Cognitive Skill: Implications for Spatial Skill in Large-Scale Environments. , 1979 .

[5]  G W Evans,et al.  Cognitive mapping: knowledge of real-world distance and location information. , 1980, Journal of experimental psychology. Human learning and memory.

[6]  T. Salthouse,et al.  Determinants of eye-fixation duration. , 1980, The American journal of psychology.

[7]  R. Wehner.  Spatial Vision in Arthropods , 1981 .

[8]  B. Tversky.  Distortions in memory for maps , 1981, Cognitive Psychology.

[9]  G. Bower,et al.  Inconsistency in spatial knowledge , 1983, Memory & cognition.

[10]  M. Gardner,et al.  USING CONFIDENCE INTERVALS , 1987, The Lancet.

[11]  D. R. Montello,et al.  Remembering Changes in Direction , 1989 .

[12]  J. Rieser.  Access to Knowledge of Spatial Structure at Novel Points of Observation , 1989 .

[13]  Clark C. Presson,et al.  Orientation specificity in spatial memory: what makes a path different from a map of the path? , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[14]  H. Intraub,et al.  Wide-angle memories of close-up scenes. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[15]  L. Hedges,et al.  Categories and particulars: prototype effects in estimating spatial location. , 1991, Psychological review.

[16]  H H Bülthoff,et al.  Psychophysical support for a two-dimensional view interpolation theory of object recognition. , 1992, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[17]  H. Intraub,et al.  Boundary extension: fundamental aspect of pictorial representation or encoding artifact? , 1993, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[18]  B. Gibson,et al.  Does orientation-independent object recognition precede orientation-dependent recognition? Evidence from a cuing paradigm. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[19]  C C Presson,et al.  Updating after Rotational and Translational Body Movements: Coordinate Structure of Perspective Space , 1994, Perception.

[20]  M. Masson,et al.  Using confidence intervals in within-subject designs , 1994, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[21]  R. D. Easton,et al.  Object-array structure, frames of reference, and retrieval of spatial knowledge. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[22]  H. Intraub,et al.  Boundary Extension for Briefly Glimpsed Photographs: Do Common Perceptual Processes Result in Unexpected Memory Distortions? , 1996 .

[23]  Helene Intraub,et al.  Beyond the edges of a picture. , 1996 .

[24]  T. McNamara,et al.  Viewpoint Dependence in Scene Recognition , 1997 .

[25]  Clark C. Presson,et al.  Orientation Specificity in Representations of Place , 1997 .

[26]  T. McNamara,et al.  Multiple views of spatial memory , 1997 .

[27]  J M Findlay,et al.  The Effect of Depth Rotation on Object Identification , 1997, Perception.

[28]  T. McNamara,et al.  Mental representations of large and small spatial layouts are orientation dependent. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[29]  Sarah S. Chance,et al.  Spatial Updating of Self-Position and Orientation During Real, Imagined, and Virtual Locomotion , 1998 .

[30]  Bernhard Schölkopf,et al.  Where did I take that snapshot? Scene-based homing by image matching , 1998, Biological Cybernetics.

[31]  H. Intraub,et al.  Effects of perceiving and imagining scenes on memory for pictures. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[32]  M J Tarr,et al.  What Object Attributes Determine Canonical Views? , 1999, Perception.

[33]  H. Bülthoff,et al.  View dependence in scene recognition after active learning , 1999, Memory & cognition.

[34]  Ranxiao Frances Wang,et al.  Representing a stable environment by egocentric updating and invariant representations , 1999, Spatial Cogn. Comput..

[35]  J. Murray,et al.  Orientation-specific effects in picture matching and naming , 1999, Memory & cognition.

[36]  D L Gilden,et al.  Representations of motion and direction. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[37]  I. Dror,et al.  Object identification as a function of discriminability and learning presentations: the effect of stimulus similarity and canonical frame alignment on aircraft identification. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[38]  Timothy P. McNamara,et al.  Systems of Spatial Reference in Human Memory , 2001, Cognitive Psychology.

[39]  Alexander Pollatsek,et al.  Viewpoint-dependent recognition of scenes , 2002, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[40]  T. McNamara,et al.  Intrinsic frames of reference in spatial memory , 2002 .

[41]  Michael Tlauka.  Switching imagined viewpoints: the effects of viewing angle and layout size. , 2002, British journal of psychology.

[42]  Mary Hegarty,et al.  Orientation specificity and spatial updating of memories for layouts. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[43]  Marvin M Chun,et al.  Implicit scene learning is viewpoint dependent , 2003, Perception & psychophysics.

[44]  Timothy P. McNamara,et al.  How Are the Locations of Objects in the Environment Represented in Memory? , 2003, Spatial Cognition.

[45]  T. McNamara,et al.  Orientation and perspective dependence in route and survey learning. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[46]  Weimin Mou,et al.  Allocentric and egocentric updating of spatial memories. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[47]  Timothy P McNamara,et al.  Spatial memory and perspective taking , 2004, Memory & cognition.

[48]  M. May,et al.  Imaginal perspective switches in remembered environments: Transformation versus interference accounts , 2004, Cognitive Psychology.

[49]  T. S. Collett,et al.  Landmark learning in bees , 1983, Journal of comparative physiology.