Egocentric reference frames in memory

描述(由申请人提供)：感知并在心理上表示一个人周围环境中物体和地方的位置是大多数人类行为的基本前提。由于位置只能在参照系中和通过参照系指定，因此对知觉和记忆中使用的参照系的科学调查已成为当代空间认知研究的一个极其重要的领域。在过去的十年里，几个研究方向汇聚在一起，表明以自我为中心的参照系的重要性(即，那些对相对于观察者的位置进行编码的系统，使得地点与身体的组织联系在一起)。当人们记住不同物体在其周围环境中的位置时，以自我为中心的参照系统尤其有影响。 考虑到以自我为中心的参照系统在物体布局记忆中的重要性，令人惊讶的是，现有研究几乎没有做什么来更准确地理解这种编码系统的性质。特别是，在自我中心参照系统的三种可能基础(基于视网膜、基于头部和基于身体)中，哪一种可能主导着记忆中的空间编码，目前还不清楚。这项研究将更深入地研究这一问题，确定自我中心编码的主要基础，以及各种自我中心参照系统的影响在多大程度上被学习和测试环境的性质所改变。该项目的完成将使人们对人类如何在记忆中编码空间信息有更清晰的理解。这项基础研究将对空间认知的计算模型产生直接影响，并提供洞察，了解无法获得某些参考系统的感觉基础的人群(如盲人和截瘫患者)可能在多大程度上有效地使用其他系统来记忆空间信息。这一发现也可能带来提高普通人群空间能力的方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Perceiving and mentally representing the locations of objects and places in one's immediate environment is a fundamental prerequisite to most of human behavior. Because locations can be specified only in and through a reference system, the scientific investigation of the reference systems used in perception and memory has become an extremely important area of contemporary research in spatial cognition. In the last decade, several lines of research have converged to suggest the importance of egocentric reference systems (i.e., those that code locations relative to the observer, such that places are linked to the organization of the body). Egocentric reference systems are particularly influential when people remember the locations of different objects in their immediate environment. Given the importance of egocentric reference systems in memories of object layouts, it is surprising that existing research has done little to understand more precisely the nature of this coding system. In particular, it is unknown which among three possible bases for an egocentric reference system (retina-based, head-based, and body-based) dominates spatial coding in memory. This research will examine this issue more closely, determining both the dominant bases for egocentric coding and the degree to which the influences of various egocentric reference systems are altered by the nature of the learning and testing environments. Completion of the project will lead to a clearer understanding of how humans encode spatial information in memory. This basic research will have immediate implications for computational models of spatial cognition as well as offering insight into the degree to which populations that do not have access to the sensory bases for certain reference systems (such as the blind and paraplegic) may productively use other systems in order to remember spatial information. Findings may also lead to ways of improving spatial abilities in the general population.