As the world turns: short-term human spatial memory in egocentric and allocentric coordinates

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_15F08640D931
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
As the world turns: short-term human spatial memory in egocentric and allocentric coordinates
Journal
Behavioural Brain Research
Author(s)
Banta Lavenex P., Lecci S., Prêtre V., Brandner C., Mazza C., Pasquier J., Lavenex P.
ISSN
1872-7549 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0166-4328
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2011
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
219
Number
1
Pages
132-141
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tPublication Status: ppublish
Abstract
We aimed to determine whether human subjects' reliance on different sources of spatial information encoded in different frames of reference (i.e., egocentric versus allocentric) affects their performance, decision time and memory capacity in a short-term spatial memory task performed in the real world. Subjects were asked to play the Memory game (a.k.a. the Concentration game) without an opponent, in four different conditions that controlled for the subjects' reliance on egocentric and/or allocentric frames of reference for the elaboration of a spatial representation of the image locations enabling maximal efficiency. We report experimental data from young adult men and women, and describe a mathematical model to estimate human short-term spatial memory capacity. We found that short-term spatial memory capacity was greatest when an egocentric spatial frame of reference enabled subjects to encode and remember the image locations. However, when egocentric information was not reliable, short-term spatial memory capacity was greater and decision time shorter when an allocentric representation of the image locations with respect to distant objects in the surrounding environment was available, as compared to when only a spatial representation encoding the relationships between the individual images, independent of the surrounding environment, was available. Our findings thus further demonstrate that changes in viewpoint produced by the movement of images placed in front of a stationary subject is not equivalent to the movement of the subject around stationary images. We discuss possible limitations of classical neuropsychological and virtual reality experiments of spatial memory, which typically restrict the sensory information normally available to human subjects in the real world.
Keywords
Adult, Attention/physiology, Computer Graphics, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Decision Making/physiology, Electric Stimulation, Environment, Female, Humans, Male, Memory, Short-Term/physiology, Models, Neurological, Models, Statistical, Neuropsychological Tests, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance/physiology, Self Concept, Sex Characteristics, Space Perception/physiology, Video Games, Visual Perception/physiology, Young Adult
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
25/10/2012 13:34
Last modification date
13/10/2021 5:42
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