Human spatial memory

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利用空间记忆进行定向和再定向的理解。笔者拟从三个方面研究：(1)人们如何从多视点体验的空间结构中选择空间参考方向；(2)空间参考方向在运动过程中对环境定向的作用；(3)环境特征和空间参考方向在失向后对环境重定向的作用。我之前的研究表明，当人们从单一视角学习物体布局时，他们倾向于根据布局内的非中心参考方向来表示物体的位置。我想问的是，当人们通过在几个不同视点的分割路径上行走来顺序地学习每个物体的位置时，这种情况是否仍然会发生。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，这表明人们在运动过程中更新自我中心的空间表征。在提议的研究中，我将证明人们在运动过程中相对于非同心参考方向进行更新。先前的研究表明，当参与者学习不规则放置物体的布局时，他们在迷失方向后对物体的指向一致性降低。在拟议的研究中，我将研究哪些环境特征（例如，连接，规律性）和重新定向线索（例如，面对物体或原始学习方向的指示）可以消除定向障碍效应。拟议的研究将详细阐述和限制空间记忆的理论模型，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 for orientation and reorientation. I propose three lines of research to investigate (1) how people select spatial reference directions for spatial structures experienced from multiple viewpoints, (2) what is the role of spatial reference direction in orienting to environments during locomotion, and (3) what is the role of environment features and spatial reference direction in reorienting to environment after disorientation. My previous research showed that when people learned a layout of objects from a single viewpoint, they tended to represent objects' locations with respect to an allocentric reference direction inside the layout. I intend to ask whether that will still happen when people sequentially learn the location of each object by walking on several segmented paths with changing viewpoints. 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 and indicated that people update egocentric spatial representations during locomotion. In the proposed research, I will demonstrate that people update with respect to an allocentric reference direction during locomotion. 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, I will examine what environmental features (e.g., connection, regularity) and reorientation cues (e.g., indication of the facing object or original learning direction) can remove the disorientation effect. The proposed research will elaborate and constrain theoretical models of spatial memory, 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.