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Cited by 50Spatial Cognition and NavigationMemory and Neural MechanismsMemory Processes and Influences

Schematic representations of local environmental space guide goal-directed navigation

Open access
Marchette, Steven A., Ryan, Jack, Epstein, Russell A.·2017·Cognition
DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2016.10.005PMC PMC5123926
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Abstract

To successfully navigate to a target, it is useful to be able to define its location at multiple levels of specificity. For example, the location of a favorite coffee mug can be described in terms of which room it is in, or in terms of where it is within the room. An appealing hypothesis is that these levels of description are retrieved from memory by accessing the same representation at progressively finer levels of granularity-first remembering the general location of an object and then "zooming in." Here we provide evidence for an alternative view, in which navigational behavior is guided by independent representations at multiple spatial scales. Subjects learned the locations of objects that were positioned within four visually distinct but geometrically similar buildings, which were in turn positioned within a broader virtual park. They were then tested on their knowledge of object location by asking them to navigate to the remembered location of each object. We examined errors during the test phase for confusions among geometrically analogous locations in different buildings-that is, navigating to the right location in the wrong building. We observed that subjects frequently made these confusions, which are analogous to remembering a passage's location on the page of a book but not remembering the page that the passage is on. This suggests that subjects were recalling the object's local location without recalling its global location. Further manipulations across seven experiments indicated that geometric confusions were observed even between buildings that were not metrically identical as long as geometrical equivalence could be defined. However, removing the walls so that the larger environment was no longer divided into subspaces abolished these errors. Taken together, our results suggest that human spatial memory contains two separable representations of "where" an object can be found: (i) a schematic map of where an object lies with respect to local landmarks and boundaries; (ii) a representation of the identity and location of each local environment.

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  • The RSC integrates egocentric and allocentric spatial frames of reference and generalizes local codes across geometrically similar environments.

    “The RSC has also been shown to integrate egocentric and allocentric spatial frames of reference 146,152 and to generalize local codes (that is, codes for specific regions, such as the southwest corner of a specific room) across geometrically similar environments (in this example, to the south-west corner of various rooms) 19,39,152 .”

    From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [19]

  • In a follow-up study, when asked to navigate to a target object, participants were more likely to navigate to an equivalent location in an incorrect building rather than navigate to an incorrect location in the correct building.

    “In a follow-up study 19 , when asked to navigate to a target object, participants were more likely to navigate to an equivalent location in an incorrect building rather than navigate to an incorrect location in the correct building.”

    From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [19]

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Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Bartlett FC 1932 Remembering: An experimental and social study Cambridge Cambridge University
  2. Meilinger T 2008 The network of reference frames theory: A synthesis of graphs and cognitive maps Spatial Cognition VI Learning, Reasoning, and Talking about Space 344 360 Springer
  3. Montello DR 1993 Scale and multiple psychologies of space Spatial information theory a theoretical basis for GIS 312 321 Springer
  4. O’Keefe J Nadel L 1978 The hippocampus as a cognitive map 3 Clarendon Press Oxford

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Authors
Marchette, S. A., Ryan, J., & Epstein, R. A.
Affiliations
University of Pennsylvania (US)
Corresponding author
Marchette, Steven A.
ORCID
Epstein, Russell A.
Venue
Cognition
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2017-01
Volume
158
Pages
68-80
ISSN
0010-0277 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.cognition.2016.10.005
PMC
PMC5123926
OpenAlex
W2548560315
Cited by
50
References
73
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 3
FWCI
5.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Cognition (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (EY022350)
  • National Science Foundation (SBE-0541957, SBE-1041707)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
Keywords
spatial memory, goal-directed navigation, schematic maps, landmark-based navigation, virtual worlds, spatial scale
MeSH terms
Female, Goals, Humans, Male, Mental Recall, Space Perception, User-Computer Interface, Spatial Memory, Spatial Learning, Spatial Navigation

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