Human Spatial Ability Research Articles

Does the level of visual detail in virtual environments affect the user’s spatial knowledge?

Researchers studying environmental perception and cognition in general, and human spatial ability in particular, have been using virtual reality as a promising tool. However, the virtual environ- ments used in these studies showed variances in the levels of visual detail they offer. Yet, little is known about whether the level of visual detail in a virtual environment affects people's spatial performance. If the level of visual detail positively or adversely affects people's spatial performance, then researchers using virtual environments to investigate human spatial performance should account for the level of visual detail besides other factors of interest. This study aimed to compare people's spatial perfor- mance in two virtual environments that varied in their levels of visual detail ('low' and 'high'). Part of the Ohio State University Campus, US was simulated with a three-dimensional computer-modeling program, GTK Radiant. QUAKE III ARENA, a real-time three-dimensional environment-generator game engine, produced perspective views through the simulation. Forty-nine students studying in Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey participated in the study. After a learning phase, participants were asked to (1) estimate the direction to two nonvisible signs, (2) estimate the straight-line and walking distances to two nonvisible signs, and (3) draw a sketch map of the environment. Results showed that the spatial knowledge acquired in the 'low' and 'high' visual detail virtual environments were similar. If people's spatial behavior does not change in virtual environments with 'low' and 'high' visual details, then researchers, designers, and planners could save time and energy in developing virtual environments to understand human behavior.

Strategy Generalization Across Orientation Tasks: Testing a Computational Cognitive Model

Humans use their spatial information processing abilities flexibly to facilitate problem solving and decision making in a variety of tasks. This article explores the question of whether a general strategy can be adapted for performing two different spatial orientation tasks by testing the predictions of a computational cognitive model. Human performance was measured on an orientation task requiring participants to identify the location of a target either on a map (find-on-map) or within an egocentric view of a space (find-in-scene). A general strategy instantiated in a computational cognitive model of the find-on-map task, based on the results from Gunzelmann and Anderson (2006), was adapted to perform both tasks and used to generate performance predictions for a new study. The qualitative fit of the model to the human data supports the view that participants were able to tailor a general strategy to the requirements of particular spatial tasks. The quantitative differences between the predictions of the model and the performance of human participants in the new experiment expose individual differences in sample populations. The model provides a means of accounting for those differences and a framework for understanding how human spatial abilities are applied to naturalistic spatial tasks that involve reasoning with maps.

Individual variation in human spatial ability: differences between men and women in object location memory

One of the most consistent findings in the area of cognitive sex differences is that males outperform females on many spatial tasks. One exception seems to be object location memory. On this task, females tend to perform better than males. However, the existing studies have provided quite mixed results and the picture is far from clear. Important moderators not systematically controlled for thus far are encoding context, the way information is retrieved from memory and the multiple component aspect of object location memory. The aim of our research was to investigate—gender differences within and between automatic and controlled encoding (incidental–intentional) and retrieving (explicit–implicit) contexts—if and how memory for objects is related to memory for object locations. Object location memory was assessed by a task in which objects had to be relocated within (pictures of) different rooms. Different encoding contexts were created by varying instructions between subjects. The way in which subjects retrieved the object locations was assessed by means of the Processing Dissociation Procedure developed by Jacoby. A separate object recognition task was conducted in order to measure memory for the objects. In general, females performed better than males on the object location memory task. However, when controlled for object memory, females no longer outperformed males, whereas they did not obtain a higher object recognition score, nor did they have more contextual recollection of the object identities. This indicates that a female advantage probably occurs somewhere else in the process of binding objects to locations. In general, participants had more conscious recollection than unconscious recollection. No effect of encoding context was found, nor any interaction effect of gender, encoding and retrieval context.

Evolution of spatial cognition: mechanisms and tasks

Finding places and orienting in space are among the most basic behavioral performances of all mobile animals. In many different species, simple mechanisms have been identified for recognizing places, returning to a “home” after an excursion, or concatenating simple navigational steps to longer routes. These mechanisms form the basis of human spatial performances. The talk will explore the relation between animal and human spatial cognition along two dimensions, (1) animal roots of human performances, and (2) features of spatial cognition uniquely found in humans. In the first part of the talk, we will present a novel behavioral paradigm for studying large-scale spatial performances in rats (Holscher in J Exp Biol 208:561–569, 2005). The setup consists of a running ball in a socket, hovering in a stream of air. The rat is fixated over the pole of the ball such that the rat’s legs touch the ball. Translatory movements of the rat are thus transformed into rotations of the ball about horizontal (“equatorial”) axes. Rotations of the rat about its vertical (dorso-ventral) axis are not restricted while the ball is prevented from such rotations by guiding wheels. In effect, then, the system is open-loop for translations and closed-loop for rotations of the rat. The rotation of the ball is measured by an optical system and used to control a virtual reality projection surrounding the rat on a panoramic screen. Initial results indicate that rats accept the virtual environment and run for long distances, up to several hundreds of meters. In addition, they can be trained to search for rewards at places specified by landmarks. In ongoing experiments, we investigate route behavior in rats, which is considered a stepping stone to topological navigation in humans. In the second part of the talk, we will discuss in what ways human spatial abilities differs from animal performances. We suggest that human spatial behavior, while relying on abilities found already in the animal wayfinding hierarchy (Trullier et al. in Prog Neurobiol 51:483–544, 1997), has taken advantage of two trends of the cognitive evolution in the social domain. First, communicating spatial knowledge, either face-to-face, by publishing or by sign-posting enables us to travel to almost every point in the world with a minimum of prior knowledge. Second, cooperative behavior in building cities, roads, and transportation systems shapes the environment in ways that may be more easy to navigate. We will argue that human wayfinding differs from animal behavior in the ability of utilizing these “socio-spatial” types of knowledge. The cognitive apparatus needed for these performances is not specifically spatial, but includes general problem solving and working memory abilities.

Spatial abilities following prenatal androgen abnormality: targeting and mental rotations performance in individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

In most mammals, behaviors that show sex differences are influenced by androgen during early life. In the current study, the hypothesis that androgen influences the development of human spatial abilities was investigated. Participants included 40 females and 29 males with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a genetic disorder that causes overproduction of adrenal androgens beginning prenatally, and 29 unaffected female and 30 unaffected male relatives of individuals with CAH. Participants ranged in age from 12–45 years. Measures of spatial abilities included two mental rotations tasks and two targeting tasks, all of which showed large sex differences favoring males in the unaffected relative controls. Females with CAH (exposed to higher than normal levels of androgen prenatally) performed better than unaffected females on the targeting tasks, and resembled unaffected males and males with CAH in this respect. However, females with CAH did not perform better than unaffected females on the measures of mental rotations abilities. Males with CAH showed unaltered performance on the targeting tasks, and impaired performance on the mental rotations tasks. Results are discussed in terms of differences in experiential and hormonal contributions to different spatial abilities, as well as in terms of possible differences in critical periods for hormonal influences on targeting versus mental rotations abilities. Specifically, we speculate that, although androgen may influence targeting abilities prenatally, if hormones influence the development of mental rotations ability, they do so at some other time, perhaps during the first six months of postnatal life.

Cognitive Maps, Spatial Abilities, and Human Wayfinding

In this paper we discuss the relations between cognitive maps, spatial abilities and human wayfinding, particularly in the context of traveling without the use of sight. Initially we discuss the nature of cognitive maps and the process of cognitive mapping as mechanisms for developing person to object (egocentric) and object to object (allocentric) internal representations. Imperfections in encoding either relations can introduce imperfections in representations of environments in memory. This, together with individual differences in human spatial abilities, can result in data manipulations that produce error. When information stored in long term memory is brought into working memory for purposes of decision making and choice behavior (as in route selection), the result may be the selection of an inefficient or incorrect path. We explore the connection between environmental learning and cognitive maps in the context of learning a route in two different cultural environments-Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Santa Barbara (California). Blind, vision impaired, and sighted volunteers traveled and learned routes of approximately the same length (1.2miles) in their respective urban environments. An initial trial was experimenter guided; three following trials were regarded as “test” trials where the participants learned the route and performed route fixing tasks including pointing between designated places, verbally describing the route after each completion, and building a model of the route using metallic strips on a magnetic board. Results indicated that by the end of the third test trial, and using the reinforcing strategies, the results of the blind or vision impaired participants could not be statistically differentiated from those of the sighted participants. This indicated that the wayfinding abilities of the three groups were equivalent in this experiment and suggested that spatial abilities were potentially the same in each group but that lack of sight interfered with putting knowledge into action.

Perceptual and Cognitive Aspects of Three-Dimensional Rotations for Computer Aided Design (CAD) Systems

The purpose of the research reported here Is to investigate human spatial and cognitive abilities for a computer aided design (CAD) rotation task. This goal Is accomplished by experimentally testing the two main competing theories, analogue versus propositional, which describe how perceptual Information Is represented In memory. The hypotheses are tested using a full factorial design with three levels of figure complexity, three axes of rotation (X, Y, Z) and four angles of rotation (0, 60, 120, 180 degrees) for a reaction time rotation task. In addition, the frequency of axis and angle errors are collected to provide a better understanding of human errors In CAD. Results revealed a significant effect for angle of rotation for reaction time but no significant effect for figure complexity thus providing support for the analogue theory.

The relationship between androgen levels and human spatial abilities

Individual differences on spatial tasks were examined relative to differences in free-androgen levels. A spatial test battery was administered to 91 males and females who differed in free-androgen levels as determined by a radioimmunoassay. Polynomial regression analyses yielded significant curvilinear functions relating spatial scores and androgen levels. A second study, conducted with a group of 33 males and females, replicated the basic findings of the first experiment.

Human spatial abilities: Psychometric studies and environmental, genetic, hormonal, and neurological influences.

Human spatial abilities: Psychometric studies and environmental, genetic, hormonal, and neurological influences.

Human spatial abilities: Psychometric studies and environmental, genetic, hormonal, and neurological influences.

Human spatial abilities: Psychometric studies and environmental, genetic, hormonal, and neurological influences.

Sex differences in human spatial ability: not an X-linked recessive gene effect.

Abstract Spatial visualization scores were obtained on the members of two hundred families. Large sex differences favoring males were found in both parents and offspring. Familial correlations, however, did not order themselves as predicted from the theory that human spatial visualization is under the control of an X‐linked recessive gene. The results are compatible with a sex limitation and/or socialization theory of ability acquisition.

Laterality, hand preference, and human spatial ability.

6 left-handed females scored significantly below 60 right-handed females on a test of spatial visualization (p less than .005). 13 left-handed males showed a higher mean score than 33 right-handed males on the spatial test, although this difference was not statistically significant. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the left cerebral hemisphere is of greater relative importance to spatial functioning in females than males.