Verbal cues flexibly transform spatial representations in human memory
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PeacockEkstrom2018_NIHMS.pdf
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Final Accepted Manuscript
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ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTDCitation
Candace E. Peacock & Arne D. Ekstrom (2019) Verbal cues flexiblytransform spatial representations in human memory, Memory, 27:4, 465-479, DOI:10.1080/09658211.2018.1520890Journal
MEMORYRights
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
Humans possess a unique ability to communicate spatially-relevant information, yet the intersection between language and navigation remains largely unexplored. One possibility is that verbal cues accentuate heuristics useful for coding spatial layouts, yet this idea remains largely untested. We test the idea that verbal cues flexibly accentuate the coding of heuristics to remember spatial layouts via spatial boundaries or landmarks. The alternative hypothesis instead conceives of encoding during navigation as a step-wise process involving binding lower-level features, and thus subsequently formed spatial representations should not be modified by verbal cues. Across three experiments, we found that verbal cues significantly affected pointing error patterns at axes that were aligned with the verbally cued heuristic, suggesting that verbal cues influenced the heuristics employed to remember object positions. Further analyses suggested evidence for a hybrid model, in which boundaries were encoded more obligatorily than landmarks, but both were accessed flexibly with verbal instruction. These findings could not be accounted for by a tendency to spend more time facing the instructed component during navigation, ruling out an attentional-encoding mechanism. Our findings argue that verbal cues influence the heuristics employed to code environments, suggesting a mechanism for how humans use language to communicate navigationally-relevant information.Note
12 month embargo; published online: 12 Sep 2018ISSN
1464-0686PubMed ID
30207206Version
Final accepted manuscriptSponsors
National Science Foundation [NSF BCS-1630296]; National Institutes of Health [NIH NS093052, NIH R01NS076856]ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/09658211.2018.1520890
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