Abstract
The way a space is learned can result in a mental mapthat is either temporally or spatially organized (Curiel & Radvansky, 1998). The present study examined the availability of spatial information under maplearning conditions where either temporal or spatial organization has been previously observed. The finding was that people were fairly accurate in tasks that explicitly required the use of spatial information. However, there was a particular advantage for having a spatially organized mental mapin a direction judgment task, especially for short distances where fine-grained knowledge was required. In contrast, there was no clear advantage for either group in a distance estimation task. These data are interpreted in the context of Huttenlocher’s category adjustment model.
Article PDF
References
Clayton, K., &Habibi, A. (1991). Contribution of temporal contiguity to the spatial priming effect.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,17, 263–271.
Curiel, J. M., &Radvansky, G. A. (1998). Mental organization of maps.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,24, 202–214.
Curiel, J. M., &Radvansky, G. A. (2002). Mental maps in memory retrieval and comprehension.Memory,10, 113–126.
Francis, W. N., &Kučcera, H. (1982).Frequency analysis of English usage. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Huttenlocher, J., Hedges, L. V., &Duncan, S. (1991). Categories and particulars: Prototype effects in estimating spatial location.Psychological Review,98, 352–376.
Levine, M., Jankovic, I. N., &Palij, M. (1982). Principles of spatial problem solving.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,111, 157–175.
McNamara, T. P. (1986). Mental representations of spatial relations.Cognitive Psychology,18, 87–121.
McNamara, T. P., Halpin, J. A., &Hardy, J. K. (1992). Spatial and temporal contributions to the structure of spatial memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,18, 555–564.
McNamara, T. P., Hardy, J. K., &Hirtle, S. C. (1989). Subjective hierarchies in spatial memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,15, 211–227.
McNamara, T. P., Ratcliff, R., &McKoon, G. (1984). The mental representation of knowledge acquired from maps.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,10, 723–732.
Newcombe, N., Huttenlocher, J., Sandberg, E., Lie, E., &Johnson, S. (1999). What do misestimations and asymmetries in spatial judgment indicate about spatial representation?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,25, 986–996.
Presson, C. C., DeLange, N., &Hazelrigg, M. D. (1989). Orientation specificity in spatial memory: What makes a path different from a mapof a path?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,15, 887–897.
Presson, C. C., &Hazelrigg, M. D. (1984). Building spatial representations through primary and secondary learning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,10, 716–722.
Rinck, M., &Bower, G. H. (1995). Anaphora resolution and the focus of attention in situation models.Journal of Memory & Language,34, 110–131.
Rinck, M., Hähnel, A., Bower, G. H., &Glowella, U. (1997). The metrics of spatial situation models.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,23, 622–637.
Rossano, M. J., Warren, D. H., &Kenan, A. (1995). Orientation specificity: How general is it?American Journal of Psychology,108, 359–380.
Stevens, S. S., &Galanter, E. H. (1957). Ratio scales and category scales for a dozen perceptual continua.Journal of Experimental Psychology,54, 377–411.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported in part by an APSSC small grant awarded to the first author and a grant from the Army Research Institute, ARMYDASW01-99-K-0001, awarded to the second author.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Curiel, J.M., Radvansky, G.A. The accuracy of spatial information from temporally and spatially organized mental maps. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 11, 314–319 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196576
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196576