What working memory subcomponents are needed in the acquisition of survey knowledge? Evidences from direction estimation and shortcut tasks

This study investigated whether and to what extent verbal and spatial working memory (WM) are implicated in the acquisition of survey knowledge through navigation in a real environment. We adopted a dual-task paradigm, asking participants to learn the layout of two floors of an unfamiliar building by navigation, and to perform either a verbal or a spatial concurrent task. Ninety undergraduates were assigned to one of three groups according to concurrent task condition: articulatory suppression, spatial tapping, or control (no concurrent task). Acquisition of a survey representation was tested by asking participants to perform direction estimations and shortcut tasks. The results showed that the spatial secondary task interfered most strongly with encoding survey knowledge.

[1]  D. R. Montello,et al.  Spatial knowledge acquisition from direct experience in the environment: Individual differences in the development of metric knowledge and the integration of separately learned places , 2006, Cognitive Psychology.

[2]  Michael A. Motes,et al.  Individual differences in the representations of novel environments , 2005 .

[3]  Andrea Bosco,et al.  Gender effects in spatial orientation: cognitive profiles and mental strategies , 2004, Applied cognitive psychology.

[4]  R. Downs,et al.  Cognitive Maps and Spatial Behaviour: Process and Products , 2011 .

[5]  T. Gärling,et al.  Acquisition of locational information about reference points during locomotion with and without a concurrent task: effects of number of reference points. , 1981, Scandinavian journal of psychology.

[6]  Francesca Pazzaglia,et al.  Strategies of processing spatial information in survey and landmark-centred individuals. , 2001 .

[7]  H. Taylor,et al.  Goal-specific influences on the representation of spatial perspective , 1999, Memory & cognition.

[8]  M. Sholl,et al.  The relation of sex and sense of direction to spatial orientation in an unfamiliar environment , 2000 .

[9]  L. Kozlowski,et al.  Sense of Direction, Spatial Orientation, and Cognitive Maps. , 1977 .

[10]  A. Siegel,et al.  The development of spatial representations of large-scale environments. , 1975, Advances in child development and behavior.

[11]  Heinrich H. Bülthoff,et al.  Working Memory in Wayfinding - A Dual Task Experiment in a Virtual City , 2008, Cogn. Sci..

[12]  Toru Ishikawa,et al.  Working memory in spatial knowledge acquisition: Differences in encoding processes and sense of direction , 2011 .

[13]  M. Sholl.  The relation between sense of direction and mental geographic updating , 1988 .

[14]  Anthony E. Richardson,et al.  Spatial abilities at different scales: Individual differences in aptitude-test performance and spatial-layout learning , 2006 .

[15]  E. Coluccia,et al.  Gender differences in spatial orientation: A review , 2004 .

[16]  R. Long,et al.  Predicting environmental learning from spatial abilities: An indirect route , 1996 .

[17]  Edward Chace Tolman,et al.  "Insight" in rats , 1930 .

[18]  Anthony E. Richardson,et al.  Development of a self-report measure of environmental spatial ability. , 2002 .

[19]  Sharin E. Garden,et al.  Visuo-spatial working memory in navigation , 2002 .

[20]  C. Gallistel.  The organization of learning , 1990 .

[21]  R. Golledge.  Wayfinding Behavior: Cognitive Mapping and Other Spatial Processes , 2010 .

[22]  E. Coluccia,et al.  The relationship between map drawing and spatial orientation abilities: A study of gender differences , 2007 .

[23]  Barbara Hayes-Roth,et al.  Differences in spatial knowledge acquired from maps and navigation , 1982, Cognitive Psychology.

[24]  C. Cornoldi,et al.  Differenze individuali nella rappresentazione dello spazio e nell'abilità di orientamento: presentazione di un questionario autovalutativo , 2000 .

[25]  Andrea Bosco,et al.  The role of visuo-spatial working memory in map learning: new findings from a map drawing paradigm , 2007, Psychological research.

[26]  E. Tolman.  Cognitive maps in rats and men. , 1948, Psychological review.

[27]  E. Coluccia,et al.  Learning from maps: the role of visuo‐spatial working memory , 2008 .

[28]  Anthony E. Richardson,et al.  Spatial knowledge acquisition from maps and from navigation in real and virtual environments , 1999, Memory & cognition.

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

[30]  Toru Ishikawa,et al.  Individual Differences in the Encoding Processes of Egocentric and Allocentric Survey Knowledge , 2013, Cogn. Sci..

[31]  D. R. Montello,et al.  Integrating Knowledge of Vertically Aligned Large-Scale Spaces , 1993 .