Abstract
Recent evidence indicates that mental representations of large (i.e., navigable) spaces are viewpoint dependent when observers are restricted to a single view. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether two views of a space would produce a single viewpoint-independent representation or two viewpoint-dependent representations. Participants learned the locations of objects in a room from two viewpoints and then made judgments of relative direction from imagined headings either aligned or misaligned with the studied views. The results indicated that mental representations of large spaces were viewpoint dependent, and that two views of a spatial layout appeared to produce two viewpoint-dependent representations in memory. Imagined headings aligned with the study views were more accessible than were novel headings in terms of both speed and accuracy of pointing judgments.
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The research reported in this paper was supported by National Science Foundation Grant SBR-9222002. We are grateful to Ted Payne for writing the experimental program, to Jeffery Franks for the use of his laboratory space, and to Kyle Cave and Jeffrey Schall for their comments on the research. We also thank Nancy Franklin, Arthur Glenberg, and an anonymous reviewer for their comments and suggestions on an earlier draft.
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Shelton, A.L., Mcnamara, T.P. Multiple views of spatial memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 4, 102–106 (1997). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210780
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210780