Landmark processing in topographic maps to support object location recall

Abstract

Object locations are memorized based on their relative position to other spatial elements. Landmarks, salient and static spatial elements, have been found to support the formation of spatial mental representations. However, it is still not totally understood which factors predict whether a landmark is a helpful reference point for object location memory. In this experiment, we assessed how the distance of landmarks to a to-be-learned object location affects fixations on the landmark and object location memory. Additionally, potential effects of visual map complexity on fixation patterns and object location memory were investigated. The findings indicate that distant landmarks are fixated less often and that location memory is better when the distance of the closest landmark to the to-be-learned object is smaller. In addition, location memory was more accurate in maps with high visual complexity. However, map complexity did not affect fixation patterns on landmarks. Thus, the availability of sufficient spatial reference points supports object location memory. In particular, the relevance of landmarks as a spatial reference point for object location memory seems to be inverse to its distance to the memorized location.