Egocentric Reference Research Articles

Aging: working memory capacity and spatial strategies in a virtual orientation task.

Brain networks involved in working and spatial memory are closely intertwined, outlining a potential relation between these processes, which are also affected in non-pathological aging. Working memory is a pre-requisite for other complex cognitive processes. The main aim of this study is to explore how working memory capacity (WMC) can influence the asymmetrical decline in spatial orientation strategies in an older segment of population compared to young participants. Forty-eight older adults and twelve young students took part in the study. Working memory and spatial memory were assessed using the Change Localization Task and The Boxes Room Task, respectively. In The Boxes Room Task, two different configurations assessed the use of egocentric and allocentric reference frames. Results showed that older adults with better WMC outperformed those with lower WMC in several tasks. Independently of WMC capacity, older participants performed better in the allocentric condition of The Boxes Room. In addition, young participants outscored low WMC older participants, but did not differ from high WMC older adults. Overly, these findings support the important relationship between working memory capacity and spatial orientations abilities. Thus, basic cognitive mechanisms engaged in information processing could inform about other brain processes more complex in nature, like spatial orientation skills.

Sound Localization of World and Head-Centered Space in Ferrets.

The location of sounds can be described in multiple coordinate systems that are defined relative to ourselves, or the world around us. Evidence from neural recordings in animals point towards the existence of both head-centered and world-centered representations of sound location in the brain; however, it is unclear whether such neural representations have perceptual correlates in the sound localization abilities of non-human listeners. Here, we establish novel behavioral tests to determine the coordinate systems in which ferrets can localize sounds. We found that ferrets could learn to discriminate between sound locations that were fixed in either world-centered or head-centered space, across wide variations in sound location in the alternative coordinate system. Using probe sounds to assess broader generalization of spatial hearing, we demonstrated that in both head and world-centered tasks, animals used continuous maps of auditory space to guide behavior. Single trial responses of individual animals were sufficiently informative that we could then model sound localization using speaker position in specific coordinate systems and accurately predict ferrets’ actions in held-out data. Our results indicate that an animal model in which neurons are known to be tuned to sound location in egocentric and allocentric reference frames can also localize sounds in multiple head and world-centered spaces.

From separate items to an integrated unit in visual working memory: Similarity chunking vs. configural grouping

It is unclear whether sequentially presented items can be grouped into an ensemble by similarity chunking without the aid of the configural cue (e.g., Kanizsa figure). The current study systematically explored this issue by gradually weakening the configural cue until it was completely removed. The results showed that sequentially presented Pac-Men could be integrated into a Kanizsa figure for better memory only when they were successively presented in adjacent locations. When Pac-Men were presented at non-adjacent or unpredictable locations, they could be chunked by their orientation similarity (they all faced toward the fixation cross) to improve memory performance. Importantly, such orientation similarity alone was sufficient to evoke memory benefit, even when successively presented Pac-Men could not form a Kanizsa object structure. This memory benefit cannot simply be attributed to the statistic regularity or mental transformation based on the egocentric reference frame. However, the configural cue alone could not produce a memory benefit if these Pac-Men did not face toward the fixation cross. All of these results indicate that the memory benefit of sequentially presented items could occur by similarity chunking without the aid of the configural cue. The memory benefit based on the configural grouping was fragile when items were sequentially presented.

Proficiency of allocentric and egocentric wayfinding: a comparison of schoolchildren with young adults and older adults

AbstractWayfinding skills decay in old age, more so for wayfinding in an allocentric than an egocentric reference frame. This study investigates whether wayfinding deficits of schoolchildren mimic those of older adults. Schoolchildren were tested on two wayfinding tasks: one could only be mastered in an allocentric, and the other only in an egocentric reference frame. The results were compared with those from a previous study of young and older adults who had been tested on the same two wayfinding tasks. It was found that wayfinding performance improved somewhat from school age to young adulthood and that this improvement proceeded more or less in parallel for the allocentric and the egocentric tasks. It was further found that wayfinding performance decayed from young to older adulthood and that this decay was more dramatic for the allocentric than for the egocentric task. This pattern of findings does not support the hypothesis that the wayfinding performance of schoolchildren mimics that of older adults.

Sex and strategy effects on brain activation during a 3D-navigation task

Sex differences in navigation have often been attributed to the use of different navigation strategies in men and women. However, no study so far has investigated sex differences in the brain networks supporting different navigation strategies. To address this issue, we employed a 3D-navigation task during functional MRI in 36 men and 36 women, all scanned thrice, and modeled navigation strategies by instructions requiring an allocentric vs. egocentric reference frame on the one hand, as well as landmark-based vs. Euclidian strategies on the other hand. We found distinct brain networks supporting different perspectives/strategies. Men showed stronger activation of frontal areas, whereas women showed stronger activation of posterior brain regions. The left inferior frontal gyrus was more strongly recruited during landmark-based navigation in men. The hippocampus showed stronger connectivity with left-lateralized frontal areas in women and stronger connectivity with superior parietal areas in men. We discuss these findings in the light of a stronger recruitment of verbal networks supporting a more verbal strategy in women compared to a stronger recruitment of spatial networks supporting a more spatial strategy use in men. In summary, this study provides evidence that different navigation strategies activate different brain areas in men and women.

Different strategies in pointing tasks and their impact on clinical bedside tests of spatial orientation

Deficits in spatial memory, orientation, and navigation are often early or neglected signs of degenerative and vestibular neurological disorders. A simple and reliable bedside test of these functions would be extremely relevant for diagnostic routine. Pointing at targets in the 3D environment is a basic well-trained common sensorimotor ability that provides a suitable measure. We here describe a smartphone-based pointing device using the built-in inertial sensors for analysis of pointing performance in azimuth and polar spatial coordinates. Interpretation of the vectors measured in this way is not trivial, since the individuals tested may use at least two different strategies: first, they may perform the task in an egocentric eye-based reference system by aligning the fingertip with the target retinotopically or second, by aligning the stretched arm and the index finger with the visual line of sight in allocentric world-based coordinates similar to using a rifle. The two strategies result in considerable differences of target coordinates. A pilot test with a further developed design of the device and an app for a standardized bedside utilization in five healthy volunteers revealed an overall mean deviation of less than 5° between the measured and the true coordinates. Future investigations of neurological patients comparing their performance before and after changes in body position (chair rotation) may allow differentiation of distinct orientational deficits in peripheral (vestibulopathy) or central (hippocampal or cortical) disorders.

Cross-generational differences in linguistic and cognitive spatial frames of reference in Negev Arabic

Abstract This paper analyses the impact of landscape on linguistic and cognitive spatial frames of reference (FoRs) in three generations of speakers of Negev Arabic (NA): Traditional (TNA), Middle (MNA), and Young (YNA). When locating one object (the figure) with respect to a reference object (the ground), TNA strategies rely on pragmatic properties attributed to the ground (e.g. familiarity) and to axial constraints (alignment between figure, ground, and the observer’s visual field). When the ground is familiar and asymmetrical, intrinsic FoR is preferred; when it is familiar and symmetrical, a Speech Act Participant (SAP)-landmark strategy is preferred if figure, ground, and observer are aligned, otherwise absolute FoR is used; when the ground is unfamiliar, absolute FoR is preferred. Absolute FoR is not used in MNA, while in egocentric reference, a relative reflection strategy is used. MNA applies right–left distinctions using reflection and rotation strategies. YNA uses intrinsic FoR and relative reflection without predicable rules; absolute FoR and SAP-landmark FoR are absent; and the right–left axis applies to all ground objects. All generations apply geocentric FoRs in non-linguistic tasks within the Negev region, but outside this region, each used different strategies. Negev landscapes are fundamental constituents of NA FoRs across generations.

Effects of View Layout on Situated Analytics for Multiple-View Representations in Immersive Visualization.

Multiple-view (MV) representations enabling multi-perspective exploration of large and complex data are often employed on 2D displays. The technique also shows great potential in addressing complex analytic tasks in immersive visualization. However, although useful, the design space of MV representations in immersive visualization lacks in deep exploration. In this paper, we propose a new perspective to this line of research, by examining the effects of view layout for MV representations on situated analytics. Specifically, we disentangle situated analytics in perspectives of situatedness regarding spatial relationship between visual representations and physical referents, and analytics regarding cross-view data analysis including filtering, refocusing, and connecting tasks. Through an in-depth analysis of existing layout paradigms, we summarize design trade-offs for achieving high situatedness and effective analytics simultaneously. We then distill a list of design requirements for a desired layout that balances situatedness and analytics, and develop a prototype system with an automatic layout adaptation method to fulfill the requirements. The method mainly includes a cylindrical paradigm for egocentric reference frame, and a force-directed method for proper view-view, view-user, and view-referent proximities and high view visibility. We conducted a formal user study that compares layouts by our method with linked and embedded layouts. Quantitative results show that participants finished filtering- and connecting-centered tasks significantly faster with our layouts, and user feedback confirms high usability of the prototype system.

Functional Specificity of the Affordance of Reaching.

The information that specifies whether an object is within reach is a complex pattern that depends on body-scaled parameters measured from an egocentric reference point. The pattern is a function of relevant body proportions (eye height, shoulder height [SH], arm length) with respect to the spatial location of the target object. In addition to not knowing how these factors map onto perception, it is also not known whether the egocentric viewpoint is centered at the eye or the shoulder. In three experiments, we systematically tested whether observers can perceive eye height and SH (Experiment 1), whether they can point accurately in the direction of a target object (Experiment 2), and whether they can point accurately to judge if the target object is within reach (Experiment 3). Experiment 1 demonstrated that participants are more accurate at judging their own eye height than SH. Experiment 2 revealed that participants can more accurately point to a target object's location when measured from the shoulder as a reference point than when measured from the eye. In Experiment 3, we showed that a higher-order variable that includes arm length, body height, and angle of declination to the target successfully predicted affordance judgments, regardless of a reference point. We consider this as evidence that the invariant is functionally specific, not tied to any one particular anatomical body part.

How ageing and blindness affect egocentric and allocentric spatial memory.

Egocentric (subject-to-object) and allocentric (object-to-object) spatial reference frames are fundamental for representing the position of objects or places around us. The literature on spatial cognition in blind people has shown that lack of vision may limit the ability to represent spatial information in an allocentric rather than egocentric way. Furthermore, much research with sighted individuals has reported that ageing has a negative impact on spatial memory. However, as far as we know, no study has assessed how ageing may affect the processing of spatial reference frames in individuals with different degrees of visual experience. To fill this gap, here we report data from a cross-sectional study in which a large sample of young and elderly participants (160 participants in total) who were congenitally blind (long-term visual deprivation), adventitiously blind (late onset of blindness), blindfolded sighted (short-term visual deprivation) and sighted (full visual availability) performed a spatial memory task that required egocentric/allocentric distance judgements with regard to memorised stimuli. The results showed that egocentric judgements were better than allocentric ones and above all that the ability to process allocentric information was influenced by both age and visual status. Specifically, the allocentric judgements of congenitally blind elderly participants were worse than those of all other groups. These findings suggest that ageing and congenital blindness can contribute to the worsening of the ability to represent spatial relationships between external, non-body-centred anchor points.

The Effects of Long Duration Spaceflight on Sensorimotor Control and Cognition.

Astronauts returning from spaceflight typically show transient declines in mobility and balance. Other sensorimotor behaviors and cognitive function have not been investigated as much. Here, we tested whether spaceflight affects performance on various sensorimotor and cognitive tasks during and after missions to the International Space Station (ISS). We obtained mobility (Functional Mobility Test), balance (Sensory Organization Test-5), bimanual coordination (bimanual Purdue Pegboard), cognitive-motor dual-tasking and various other cognitive measures (Digit Symbol Substitution Test, Cube Rotation, Card Rotation, Rod and Frame Test) before, during and after 15 astronauts completed 6 month missions aboard the ISS. We used linear mixed effect models to analyze performance changes due to entering the microgravity environment, behavioral adaptations aboard the ISS and subsequent recovery from microgravity. We observed declines in mobility and balance from pre- to post-flight, suggesting disruption and/or down weighting of vestibular inputs; these behaviors recovered to baseline levels within 30 days post-flight. We also identified bimanual coordination declines from pre- to post-flight and recovery to baseline levels within 30 days post-flight. There were no changes in dual-task performance during or following spaceflight. Cube rotation response time significantly improved from pre- to post-flight, suggestive of practice effects. There was also a trend for better in-flight cube rotation performance on the ISS when crewmembers had their feet in foot loops on the “floor” throughout the task. This suggests that tactile inputs to the foot sole aided orientation. Overall, these results suggest that sensory reweighting due to the microgravity environment of spaceflight affected sensorimotor performance, while cognitive performance was maintained. A shift from exocentric (gravity) spatial references on Earth toward an egocentric spatial reference may also occur aboard the ISS. Upon return to Earth, microgravity adaptions become maladaptive for certain postural tasks, resulting in transient sensorimotor performance declines that recover within 30 days.

Frames of spatial reference in five Australian languages

ABSTRACT Australian Indigenous languages are widely cited as depending overwhelmingly on abstract cardinal terms for spatial reference. However, considerable under-recognized diversity exists, with systems invoking aspects of local topography or egocentric projections. The first step toward an empirically grounded understanding of the wider implications of Australian spatial reference systems is to establish what components of spatial systems actually occur in what combinations across the continent. This article examines the spatial systems of five Australian languages to test hypotheses about the role of the environment in shaping linguistic representations of space, revealing under-recognized aspects of Australian systems, including the use of egocentric (“relative”) reference frame but only on the sagittal axis; a nearside-farside system; and multiple systems invoking diverse salient environmental features.

Egocentric and Allocentric Reference Frames Can Flexibly Support Contextual Cueing.

We investigated if contextual cueing can be guided by egocentric and allocentric reference frames. Combinations of search configurations and external frame orientations were learned during a training phase. In Experiment 1, either the frame orientation or the configuration was rotated, thereby disrupting either the allocentric or egocentric and allocentric predictions of the target location. Contextual cueing survived both of these manipulations, suggesting that it can overcome interference from both reference frames. In contrast, when changed orientations of the external frame became valid predictors of the target location in Experiment 2, we observed contextual cueing as long as one reference frame was predictive of the target location, but contextual cueing was eliminated when both reference frames were invalid. Thus, search guidance in repeated contexts can be supported by both egocentric and allocentric reference frames as long as they contain valid information about the search goal.

The effects of aging and dopaminergic inhibition on large scale maze learning in rhesus monkeys

Studies have shown that both aging and dopaminergic dysfunction affected spatial learning and memory. Systematic dopaminergic inhibition, by dopamine receptor (DR) antagonist treatment, impaired spatial delayed-response (SDR) performance, which mostly requires self/body centered egocentric reference frame, in rhesus monkeys. However, the influence of DR blocking on large scale maze learning, which mainly involves world centered allocentric reference frame, remains unclear. Moreover, the effects of aging on the process also remain unknown. Present study investigated the issues, using large scale mazes composed of 8 maze units. Maze No. 1 was used for adaptation and training. Mazes No. 2-4 were used to investigate influence of aging, by comparing learning performance between young and aged rhesus monkeys. Mazes No. 5-8 were used to investigate the effects of DR antagonist treatment, SKF-83566 (0.02, 0.2 mg/kg) and haloperidol (0.001, 0.01 mg/kg). The result showed similar learning performance between young and aged monkeys in mazes No. 2-4. In mazes No. 5-8, we also found similar learning performance after acute DR antagonist injection, compared with pre-treatment baseline performance in mazes No. 2-4, in both young and aged groups. The result showed similar maze learning performance between young and aged monkeys in mazes (No. 2-4), suggesting no significant influence of aging on allocentric spatial learning. We also found similar maze performance in both groups, after dopamine receptor antagonist treatment in mazes (No. 5-8) compared with pre-treatment baseline performance in mazes (No. 2-4), suggesting no significant influence of dopaminergic inhibition on allocentric spatial learning. Together, the present study potentially suggested insensitivity of allocentric spatial learning to cognitive aging and acute systematic dopaminergic inhibition.

Reference frames and geographic scale: understanding their relationship in environmental learning

ABSTRACT Reference frames provide structure for spatial cognition and support spatial knowledge development across different scales. This study sheds light on the relationship between geographic scale, defined as the spatial extent visually accessible from a single viewpoint, and the preferential use of different reference frames (egocentric vs. allocentric) for environmental learning. Participants learned target locations by teleporting through a virtual maze. Leveraging the flexibility and potential of immersive technologies, we manipulated geographic scale using two perspectives, a ground-level view and a pseudo-aerial view, to examine how reference frame proclivity (determined by an established test) affects spatial learning at each scale. The results of a pointing task show that participants who preferred an allocentric reference frame benefited from the pseudo-aerial perspective, whereas participants who preferred an egocentric reference frame made more efficient use of the ground perspective. A fine-grained behavioral and cognitive analysis provides concrete explanations for differences in task performance and offers evidence for the existence of egocentric survey representations. The results are essential for understanding how immersive technologies change spatial learning.

More Personal Knowledge for More Sustainable Higher Education

Abstract The article aims at considering the characteristics of the Anthropocene era from a broader perspective and emhasizing the possibilities of pedagogy to reduce the current unsustain-ability of higher education. The relationships between human and nature are affected by the wicked problems. In particular, they are influenced by intermingling of anthropocentrism, egocentrism and egoism, which affect these relationships by causing changes in the human being, i.e., changes in sensitivity and sensibility occur that are naturally necessary for human adaptation to the environment. For the case study, we have used the processes taking place at the phenomenon level, which are known as the first-person perspective (1PP) characterized by an active and dynamic connection with the environment. It should be noted that 1PP cannot be observed from a distance, as there are a number of interrelated processes that begin with the effects of the environment, the formation of the “self” and the formation of the self-image. It follows that complex consciousness in the 1PP is implemented within an egocentric reference system, where experience is structured according to the image of the human body. The article will present the findings of 1PP study obtained by performing two tasks: (1) development of a personally significant view of a 1PP researcher on the phenomenon of sustainability from an egocentric perspective and (2) involvement of the 1PP researcher in adaptive learning suitable for pandemic conditions. We would like to stress that the case study has been developed as our reaction to the intensification of unsustainable development in the relationship between nature and human, which has been initiated and maintained by the tangle of Anthropocene problems. From the pedagogical perspective, we looked for an opportunity to use the basis of the natural origin of human and nature relations to maintain more integrated activities and more personal knowledge, so that the development of more sustainable higher education could be promoted by means of personal experience. Through the pedagogical lenses of phenomenology, we identified the need to reduce the impact of the Anthropocene tangle through the use of more natural methods. We also recognized the need to use the 1PP and adaptive learning opportunities more carefully. In this way, pedagogy can gain new experiences for a more holistic understanding of individual experience and enhance the use of the unique abilities of adaptive learning to prototype more personal knowledge in order to build more sustainable higher education.

The 3s Spreadsheet Test version 2 for assessing egocentric viewer-centered and allocentric stimulus-centered spatial neglect

The present study established the norms of the 3 s Spreadsheet Test version 2 (3S-v2 Test) with 186 healthy adults, compared performance of 23 individuals with spatial neglect after right brain stroke to the norms, and examined the extent that allocentric neglect is independent from egocentric neglect. The task required in the 3S-v2 Test is to cross out the target digit “3” in a spreadsheet that contained 10 columns and 14 rows of digit strings, including 120 target digits and 720 non-target digits. Each target is categorized with respect to its location on the page (egocentric viewer-centered) and its position within the digit string (allocentric stimulus-centered). Patients completed the 3S-v2 Test, the Apples Test, and Scene Copying Test (a five-object figure copying test). Based on the neglect classification criteria of these three tests, 18 patients (78.3%) were identified with both forms of neglect, three patients (13.0%) had isolated egocentric neglect, and two (8.7%) had isolated allocentric neglect. Among patients who were determined as having allocentric neglect by a given test, we found no significant correlation between severity of allocentric neglect and stimulus location in the egocentric reference frame. Based on the present findings, we suggest that including the 3S-v2 Test, a functionally relevant task and different from the currently available tests, may increase the comprehensiveness of neglect assessment. In addition, allocentric neglect symptoms are independent of egocentric locations.

The Critical Role of Head Movements for Spatial Representation During Bumblebees Learning Flight.

Bumblebees perform complex flight maneuvers around the barely visible entrance of their nest upon their first departures. During these flights bees learn visual information about the surroundings, possibly including its spatial layout. They rely on this information to return home. Depth information can be derived from the apparent motion of the scenery on the bees' retina. This motion is shaped by the animal's flight and orientation: Bees employ a saccadic flight and gaze strategy, where rapid turns of the head (saccades) alternate with flight segments of apparently constant gaze direction (intersaccades). When during intersaccades the gaze direction is kept relatively constant, the apparent motion contains information about the distance of the animal to environmental objects, and thus, in an egocentric reference frame. Alternatively, when the gaze direction rotates around a fixed point in space, the animal perceives the depth structure relative to this pivot point, i.e., in an allocentric reference frame. If the pivot point is at the nest-hole, the information is nest-centric. Here, we investigate in which reference frames bumblebees perceive depth information during their learning flights. By precisely tracking the head orientation, we found that half of the time, the head appears to pivot actively. However, only few of the corresponding pivot points are close to the nest entrance. Our results indicate that bumblebees perceive visual information in several reference frames when they learn about the surroundings of a behaviorally relevant location.

Brain Dynamics of Spatial Reference Frame Proclivity in Active Navigation.

Recent research into navigation strategy of different spatial reference frames (self-centered egocentric reference frame and environment-centered allocentric reference frame) has revealed that the parietal cortex plays an important role in processing allocentric information to provide a translation function between egocentric and allocentric spatial reference frames. However, most studies merely focused on a passive experimental environment, which is not truly representative of our daily spatial learning/navigation tasks. This study investigated the factor associated with brain dynamics that causes people to switch their preferred spatial strategy in both active and passive navigations to bridge the gap. Virtual reality (VR) technique and Omni treadmill are applied to realize actively walking for active navigation, and for passive navigation, participants were sitting while conducting the same task. Electroencephalography (EEG) signals were recorded to monitor spectral perturbations on transitions between egocentric and allocentric frames during a path integration task. Forty-one right-handed male participants from authors' university participated this study. Our brain dynamics results showed navigation involved areas including the parietal cortex with modulation in the alpha band, the occipital cortex with beta and low gamma band perturbations, and the frontal cortex with theta perturbation. Differences were found between two different turning-angle paths in the alpha band in parietal cluster event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs). In small turning-angle paths, allocentric participants showed stronger alpha desynchronization than egocentric participants; in large turning-angle paths, participants for two reference frames had a smaller difference in the alpha frequency band. Behavior results of homing errors also corresponded to brain dynamic results, indicating that a larger angle path caused the allocentric to have a higher tendency to become egocentric navigators in the active navigation environment.

Gender Differences in Haptic Parallelity Matching

Previous studies have reported gender differences in performance when two bars have to be set parallel to each other haptically, with females having significantly larger deviations than males. Recent results comparing male participants with and without action video game experience showed that the former performed significantly better than the latter in the aforementioned haptic parallelity task. Considering that males more often engage in action video gaming, the observed performance differences between male and female participants might be related to gaming experience rather than gender. This was investigated in the current study by comparing haptic parallelity performance in males with action video gaming experience and in males and females without this experience. The results showed that male participants with as well as without action video gaming experience performed significantly better than female participants. These results suggest that differences in haptic parallelity matching between males and females seem to be related to gender, rather than action video gaming experience. When performing the parallelity task visually, no significant differences were found between the three groups, corroborating earlier hypotheses that women are less able to ignore the bias of the egocentric hand-centered reference frame than men when haptically paralleling orientations.