Human spatial memory and navigation

我的研究项目的总体目标是增加我们对人们如何在记忆中表示空间关系以及人们如何在导航中使用空间记忆的理解。我之前的研究表明，当物体排成一行形成一个规则的布局时，人们倾向于在布局内相对于一个非中心参考方向来表示物体的位置。我想问的是，当人们学习随机放置的物体的布局，去掉任何外部提示时，这种情况是否还会发生。一些文献研究表明，当新的测试视图由观察者运动引起时，识别场景中的新视图比由场景旋转引起的新视图更准确。在本文的研究中，在场景旋转条件下，空间参考方向将通过标记来指示，而在观察者位置条件下，空间参考方向将不通过标记来指示。目标是观察在场景旋转条件下的识别性能是否与观察者运动条件下的识别性能相当。我还将调查人们在迷失方向后如何重新定位。我之前的研究表明，当参与者学习不规则放置物体的布局时，他们在物体上指向的一致性在迷失方向后会下降。在本研究中，被试在迷失方向后，会被告知他们的面对方向或他们原来的学习方向。目的是检验定向障碍效应是否会在两种情况下消失。这项拟议的研究将促进我们对人们如何表示物体位置以及他们在导航过程中如何使用空间记忆的理解。在很多情况下，这是一项重要的现实技能。拟议的研究将详细阐述和限制空间记忆和导航的理论模型，包括我自己的和其他人的。这也有助于我们理解参考方向、视点变化和运动在识别场景、形状和物体中的作用。因此，这些发现应该对形成三维环境中视觉处理的通用模型提供信息。

The general objective of my research program has been to increase our understanding of how people represent spatial relations in memory and how people use spatial memory in navigation. My previous research showed that people tend to represent objects' locations with respect to an allocentric reference direction inside the layout when the objects are lined up forming a regular layout. I intend to ask whether that will still happen when people learn a layout of randomly placed objects in which any external cues are removed. Several studies in the literature showed that recognizing novel views in scenes was more accurate when the novel test view was caused by observer locomotion than when it was caused by scene rotation. In the proposed research, the spatial reference direction will be indicated via a marker in the scene rotation condition but not in the observer location condition. The goal is to see if recognition performance in the scene rotation condition becomes comparable to that in the observer locomotion condition. I will also investigate how people reorient after disorientation. My previous research showed that when participants learned a layout of irregularly placed objects, their pointing consistency across objects decreased after disorientation. In the proposed research, after disorientation, participants will be told either their facing direction or their original learning direction. The goal is to examine whether disorientation effect will disappear in either condition. The proposed research should advance our understanding of how people represent locations of objects and how they use spatial memory during navigation. This is an important real-world skill in many contexts. The proposed research will elaborate and constrain theoretical models of spatial memory and navigation, both my own and those of others. It should also help our understanding the roles of the reference direction, viewpoint change, and locomotion in recognizing scenes, shapes, and objects. Hence, the findings should be informative in forming a universal model of visual processing in 3D environments.