Human spatial memory and navigation

我的研究计划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。 我以前的研究表明，当对象排列形成规则布局时，人们倾向于表示对象在布局内的位置相对于一个非中心参考方向。 我想问的是，当人们学习一个随机放置的物体的布局时，如果没有任何外部线索，这种情况是否还会发生。 文献中的几项研究表明，当新的测试视图由观察者运动引起时，比由场景旋转引起时，识别场景中的新视图更准确。 在所提出的研究中，空间参考方向将通过一个标记在场景旋转的条件下，而不是在观察者的位置条件。 我们的目标是，看看识别性能的场景旋转条件下变得可比的观察者运动条件。 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的物体的布局时，他们在定向障碍后对物体的指向一致性会下降。 在本研究中，在定向障碍后，被试会被告知他们面对的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。 这项拟议中的研究应该会促进我们对人们如何表示物体位置以及他们如何在导航过程中使用空间记忆的理解。在许多情况下，这是一项重要的现实技能。 拟议中的研究将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。 它还应该帮助我们理解参考方向，视点变化和运动在识别场景，形状和物体中的作用。 因此，研究结果应该是翔实的，在形成一个通用的模型，在3D环境中的视觉处理。

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.