Influence of body-centered information on the transfer of spatial learning from a virtual to a real environment

This study investigated the effects of body-centred information on the transfer of spatial learning using a wayfinding task and tasks that specifically probe the route and survey strategies of navigation. The subject learned a route in either a real or a virtual environment (VE; 3D scale model of a Bordeaux neighbourhood) and then reproduced it in the real environment. The involvement of body-based information was manipulated across the spatial learning conditions in the VE: participants learned with full body-based information (treadmill with rotation), with the translational component only (treadmill without rotation) or without body-based information (joystick). In the wayfinding task, the results showed a significant effect of the learning environment with the best scores obtained in the real and treadmill with rotation conditions. There was no significant difference between these two conditions, but the real condition was significantly different from the treadmill without rotation and joystick conditions. Also, the visual flow was sufficient to successfully perform the two egocentric tasks used as well as a direction estimation task (a survey task), in so far as there is no significant difference between the joystick and the treadmill conditions. By contrast, the distance estimates were improved by the treadmill condition including the translational component (but not the rotational component). Finally, our results show that treadmill with rotation promotes the transfer of spatial learning from a virtual to a real environment (compared to joystick and treadmill without rotation). Moreover, body-centred informations are more involved in allocentric (distance estimates) than egocentric navigational strategies.     

Navigation assistance: a trade-off between wayfinding support and configural learning support

Current GPS-based mobile navigation assistance systems support wayfinding, but they do not support learning about the spatial configuration of an environment. The present study examined effects of visual presentation modes for navigation assistance on wayfinding accuracy, route learning, and configural learning. Participants (high-school students) visited a university campus for the first time and took a predefined assisted tour. In Experiment 1 (n = 84, 42 females), a presentation mode showing wayfinding information from eye-level was contrasted with presentation modes showing wayfinding information included in views that provided comprehensive configural information. In Experiment 2 (n = 48, 24 females), wayfinding information was included in map fragments. A presentation mode which always showed north on top of the device was compared with a mode which rotated according to the orientation of the user. Wayfinding accuracy (deviations from the route), route learning, and configural learning (direction estimates, sketch maps) were assessed. Results indicated a trade-off between wayfinding and configural learning: Presentation modes providing comprehensive configural information supported the acquisition of configural knowledge at the cost of accurate wayfinding. The route presentation mode supported wayfinding at the cost of configural knowledge acquisition. Both presentation modes based on map fragments supported wayfinding. Individual differences in visual-spatial working memory capacity explained a considerable portion of the variance in wayfinding accuracy, route learning, and configural learning. It is concluded that learning about an unknown environment during assisted navigation is based on the integration of spatial information from multiple sources and can be supported by appropriate visualization.     

Acquiring principles of semantic organization

One hundred and forty third and seventh grade children (ages 9 and 13 years) learned familiar animal terms organized and presented either hierarchically, in lists, or randomly. Following multitrial free recall of list items, subjects performed four sorting tasks with the same item set to test for transfer of the organizational principles employed in the original learning. A no-training group at each level also sorted. There was a training effect at both grade levels on the sorting tasks. Groups receiving structured presentations had essentially learned a new lexical organization for the items. As expected, older children applied the learned structures more spontaneously and more accurately than younger children in the same conditions. The importance of a transfer task in assessing changes in subjective organization is stressed.     

Neural evidence supports a novel framework for spatial navigation

The spatial knowledge used for human navigation has traditionally been separated into three categories: landmark, route, and survey knowledge. While behavioral research has retained this framework, it has become increasingly clear from recent neuroimaging studies that such a classification system is not adequate for understanding the brain. This review proposes a new framework, with a taxonomy based on the cognitive processes and subprocesses involved in spatial navigation. The neural correlates of spatial memory can inform our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in human navigation, and conversely, the specific task demands of an experiment can inform the interpretation of neuroimaging results. This review examines the neural correlates of each cognitive process separately, to provide a closer inspection of each component of spatial navigation. While landmark, route, and survey knowledge are still important components of human navigation, the neural correlates are not neatly ascribed to these three categories. The present findings provide motivation for a more detailed examination of the cognitive processes engaged during wayfinding.     

Working memory in wayfinding-a dual task experiment in a virtual city

This study examines the working memory systems involved in human wayfinding. In the learning phase, 24 participants learned two routes in a novel photorealistic virtual environment displayed on a 220° screen while they were disrupted by a visual, a spatial, a verbal, or—in a control group—no secondary task. In the following wayfinding phase, the participants had to find and to "virtually walk" the two routes again. During this wayfinding phase, a number of dependent measures were recorded. This research shows that encoding wayfinding knowledge interfered with the verbal and with the spatial secondary task. These interferences were even stronger than the interference of wayfinding knowledge with the visual secondary task. These findings are consistent with a dual-coding approach of wayfinding knowledge.     

The use of virtual reality for episodic memory assessment: effects of active navigation

Episodic memory was assessed using Virtual Reality (VR). Forty-four (44) subjects visualized a target virtual apartment containing specific objects in each room. Then they visualized a second virtual apartment comprised of specific objects and objects shared by the two apartments. Subjects navigated in the virtual apartments in one of the following two conditions: active and passive. Four main episodic memory components were scored from the VR exposures: (1) learning effect; (2) active forgetting effect; (3) strategies at encoding and at retrieval; and (4) false recognitions (FRs). The effect of navigation mode (active vs. passive) on each memory component was examined. Active subjects had better learning and retrieval (recognition hits) performances compared to passive subjects. A beneficial effect of active navigation was also observed on the source-based FR rates. Active subjects made fewer source-based FRs compared to passive subjects. These overall results for the effect of active navigation are discussed in terms of the distinction between item-specific and relational processing.     

性别、寻路策略与导航方式对寻路行为的影响

本研究探讨了两种寻路策略与三种导航方式对寻路行为绩效的影响并分析了该效应的性别差异。实验被试120名, 实验结果显示：在VR迷宫场景中寻路, 对男性而言, 定向策略的使用情况是影响导航方式绩效的重要因素。对不擅长使用定向策略的男性而言, 标志导航最佳, 标志与YAH地图并存时次之, YAH地图导航最差。其中, 标志导航与YAH地图导航绩效差异显著。而对擅长使用定向策略的男性而言, 导航方式的类型对寻路绩效的影响不显著。导航方式的类型对女性寻路影响显著, 其中, 标志导航最佳, 标志与YAH地图并存时次之, YAH地图导航最差。该研究结果可为导航支持系统的界面设计提供依据。     

Do tests facilitate decision‐making performance on a transfer task?

Testing can improve later recall of information. However, much less is known about the potential use of testing in promoting the transfer of learning. In this study, we investigated whether testing improves decision‐making performance on a transfer task in a sample of 98 university students using a between‐subjects design. After studying several statements about a fictional disease under different learning conditions (restudy, free recall, and multiple‐choice), participants were asked to recall this information and subsequently make medical decisions concerning the fictional disease (i.e., the transfer task). The present study found no advantage of testing conditions over restudy condition on the 30‐min delayed memory task. However, participants in the active retrieval practice (i.e., free recall) group performed significantly better on the transfer task over those in both restudy and multiple‐choice groups. These results suggest free‐recall tests promote the transfer of learning.     

The effect of articulatory suppression and manual tapping on serial recall

Concurrent tasks, such as articulatory suppression and manual tapping, are used to understand the mechanisms underlying short-term memory by overloading domain-specific resources. The present study addresses the debate regarding the theoretical frameworks accounting for interference in serial recall by comparing the effects of both the modality of concurrent tasks (verbal vs. spatial) as well as the state of the tasks (steady vs. changing) in both verbal and spatial recall. The findings indicate that the verbal changing-state concurrent task significantly impaired digit recall, whereas the spatial changing-state concurrent task significantly impaired block recall. The theoretical implications are discussed in the context of a multimodal working memory model with domain-specific resources and a unitary approach to short-term memory.     

Memory strategies in children with learning disabilities

Memory strategies were examined among children, 7–13 years old, with diagnosed learning disabilities, in order to investigate whether they perform in appropriately active and efficient ways. The children were grouped at two age levels and administered tasks of serial recall and free recall. A strategy-training session was conducted on the second task. On the serial recall, neither age group showed evidence of rehearsal, in contrast to previous studies. On the free recall task, the younger children's performance was consistent with the mediation deficiency hypothesis, while the older children improved in sorting, clustering, and recall following training; i.e., they showed a typical production deficiency. There was support for considering this sample of learning disabled children as inactive learners, with potential developmental change. Serial recall improved with age, and the older children's production deficiences in free recall appeared to be ameliorated with training in organizational strategies.     

Active route learning in virtual environments: disentangling movement control from intention, instruction specificity, and navigation control

Active navigation research examines how physiological and psychological involvement in navigation benefits spatial learning. However, existing conceptualizations of active navigation comprise separable, distinct factors. This research disentangles the contributions of movement control (i.e., self-contained vs. observed movement) as a central factor from learning intention (Experiment 1), instruction specificity and instruction control (Experiment 2), as well as navigation control (Experiment 3) to spatial learning in virtual environments. We tested the effects of these factors on landmark recognition (landmark knowledge), tour-integration and route navigation (route knowledge). Our findings suggest that movement control leads to robust advantages in landmark knowledge as compared to observed movement. Advantages in route knowledge do not depend on learning intention, but on the need to elaborate spatial information. Whenever the necessary level of elaboration is assured for observed movement, too, the development of route knowledge is not inferior to that for self-contained movement.     

Judgements of relative direction: The effect of task instructions on spatial recall

One of the most widely used tasks in the spatial memory literature is the judgement of relative direction (JRD) test. The present investigation examined the hypothesis that standard JRD task demands bias spatial recall. In two experiments, participants' recall of small-scale layouts as measured by standard JRD tests (in which the relationship between objects was employed to establish imagined orientations within the learned scene) was compared with recall as measured by novel JRD tasks. The novel tasks emphasized either the internal front/back and left/right axes of individual objects (Experiment 1) or extrinsic spatial cues (Experiment 2). Spatial recall was found to reflect the reference cues emphasized by the JRD task in Experiment 1 and by the novel task in Experiment 2. The finding that directional judgements tended to reflect a frame of reference aligned with the set of cues emphasized by task demands suggests that the nature of the task employed to test knowledge can have an effect on spatial recall.     

Transfer of route learning from virtual to real environments

The authors investigated the extent to which route learning in a virtual environment (VE) transfers to the real world. In Experiment 1, active VE exploration, on its own or with a map, produced better transfer of training than either no VE training at all or passive VE training; however, transfer was achieved after shorter training times with the map. Experiment 2 demonstrated that VE + map training was not superior to training with a map alone, and Experiment 3 demonstrated that the poorer performances observed after passive VE training were not simply due to a lack of attention but to the lack of active navigational decisions. The authors concluded that the present VE technology does not provide better route learning than studying a map.     

Asymmetric learning transfer between imagined viewer- and object-rotations: Evidence of a hierarchical organization of spatial reference frames

Neural resources subserving spatial processing in either egocentric or allocentric reference frames are, at least partly, dissociated. However, it is unclear whether these two types of representations are independent or whether they interact. We investigated this question using a learning transfer paradigm. The experiment and material were designed so that they could be used in a clinical setting. Here, we tested healthy subjects in an imagined viewer-rotation task and an imagined object-rotation task. The order of the tasks was counterbalanced across subjects. The results showed that subjects who did the viewer-rotation task first had fewer errors and shorter latencies of response in the object-rotation task, whereas subjects who did the object-rotation task first had little if any advantage in the viewer-rotation task. In other words, the results revealed an asymmetric learning transfer between tasks, which suggests that spatial representations are hierarchically organized. Specifically, the results indicate that the viewer-rotation task engaged allocentric representations and egocentric representations, whereas the object-rotation task engaged only egocentric representations.     

Asymmetric learning transfer between imagined viewer- and object-rotations: Evidence of a hierarchical organization of spatial reference frames

Neural resources subserving spatial processing in either egocentric or allocentric reference frames are, at least partly, dissociated. However, it is unclear whether these two types of representations are independent or whether they interact. We investigated this question using a learning transfer paradigm. The experiment and material were designed so that they could be used in a clinical setting. Here, we tested healthy subjects in an imagined viewer-rotation task and an imagined object-rotation task. The order of the tasks was counterbalanced across subjects. The results showed that subjects who did the viewer-rotation task first had fewer errors and shorter latencies of response in the object-rotation task, whereas subjects who did the object-rotation task first had little if any advantage in the viewer-rotation task. In other words, the results revealed an asymmetric learning transfer between tasks, which suggests that spatial representations are hierarchically organized. Specifically, the results indicate that the viewer-rotation task engaged allocentric representations and egocentric representations, whereas the object-rotation task engaged only egocentric representations.     

The relative weightings of visual and nonvisual coding in a simple motor learning task

A linear positioning task was used to examine the effects of visual and nonvisual inputs on motor learning. The experiment had three factors with two levels of each namely: sensory modality (visual-nonvisual), transfer at recall (changed-unchanged), size of movement (25.4 cm, 50.8 com). Three dependent variable were used: absolute error (AE), constant error (CE), and variable error (VE). The results suggest that visual dominance causes disruption of recall in the visual, changed conditions. No disruption of recall was found for the nonvisual condition other than in terms of CE with respect to movement sizes. The results are taken to follow Posner et al.'s (1976) theory of visual dominance, but some account of the spatial qualities of visual and kinesthetic information is needed.     

Optimal learning strategies and their spontaneous use: The importance of task-appropriate processing

College students were given three verbal learning tasks to perform, with some subjects instructed to use a particular verbal or imaginal encoding strategy for all three tasks and other subjects not instructed to use any particular strategy. It was found that the relative effectiveness of the assigned encoding strategies varied as a function of the learning task. In addition, “uninstructed” subjects, for the most part, spontaneously employed strategies that produced recall comparable to that observed for subjects assigned the most effective strategy for a particular learning task. In Experiment 2, subjects were instructed to perform a different encoding strategy for each learning task. Subjects who were assigned the strategies in a “task-appropriate” fashion recalled more, in general, than subjects who were assigned the same strategies paired with the learning tasks in a haphazard fashion. Subjects not instructed to use a particular strategy again demonstrated relatively high recall and were found to vary processing across learning tasks. It was concluded that optimal learning for a range of tasks can require deployment of several semantic/elaborative strategies in a task-appropriate fashion. Furthermore, mature learners seem to spontaneously utilize semantic and imaginal strategies and do so task appropriately.     

Extraversion,Neuroticism, and Face-Name Learning

Previous research has attempted to relate personality traits to paired-associate learning. We tested name recall as a function of extraversion and neuroticism (as assessed by the Eysenck Personality Inventory) and task difficulty. Face photographs were paired with one of three levels of information: names only (an easy task); names and occupations; or names, occupations, and interests (a difficult task). On the easy and difficult tasks, extraverted subjects recalled more names than did subjects scoring at the median or below on that trait. Contrary to expectations, subjects scoring high on neuroticism recalled more names than did subjects scoring low on that trait. Neither trait was significantly related to recall on the moderately difficult task. There was no interaction between traits for name recall, but there was for interests: Neurotic introverts were significantly impaired at recalling interests, whereas the other subjects recalled interests better than names. These findings thus differ from those of paired-associate learning tasks using words and nonsense syllables.     

Visuo‐spatial working memory in navigation

Two experiments employed dual task techniques to explore the role of working memory in route learning and subsequent route retrieval. Experiment 1 involved contrasting performance of two groups of volunteers respectively learning a route from a series of map segments or a series of visually presented nonsense words. Both groups performed learning and recognition under articulatory suppression or concurrent spatial tapping. Both concurrent tasks had an overall disruptive effect on each learning task. However, spatial tapping disrupted route recognition rather more than did articulatory suppression, while the nonsense word recognition was impaired more by articulatory suppression than by concurrent spatial tapping. Experiment 2 again used dual task methodology, but explored route learning by asking volunteers to follow the experimenter through the winding streets of a medieval European town centre. Retrieval involved following the same route while the experimenter followed and noted errors in navigation. Overall the results partially replicated those of Experiment 1 in that both concurrent tasks interfered with route learning. However, volunteers with high spatial ability appeared more affected by the concurrent spatial tapping task, whereas low spatial subjects appeared more affected by the concurrent articulatory suppression task. Results are interpreted to suggest that different aspects of working memory are involved in learning a route from a map with a greater emphasis on visuo‐spatial resources, but in tasks set in real environments where many cues of a varied nature are available, only high spatial ability subjects appear to rely heavily upon the visuospatial component of working memory. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Individual differences in spatial learning from computer-simulated environments

A multivariate study examined relationships between the following factors: paper-and-pencil assessments of verbal and spatial ability, ability to form an accurate spatial representation of a large real-world environment, gender, computer attitudes and experience, proficiency with the navigational interface of a virtual environment (VE), and the ability to acquire and transfer spatial knowledge from a VE. Psychometrically assessed spatial ability and proficiency with the navigational interface were found to make substantial contributions to individual differences in the ability to acquire spatial information from a VE. Gender influenced many VE-related tasks, primarily through its relationship with interface proficiency and spatial ability. Measures of spatial knowledge of a VE maze were highly predictive of subsequent performance in a similar real-world maze, suggesting that VEs can be useful for training people about real-world spaces.