Article
Facilitated pointing to remembered objects in front: Evidence for egocentric retrieval or for spatial priming?
Psychnomic Bulletin & Review
(2009)
Abstract
Recent spatial memory theories propose that long-term spatial memories are retrieved egocentrically. One source of evidence comes from imagined perspective taking, in which participants learn an object layout, later imagine standing at one object and facing a second (orienting) object, and then point to a third (target) object from the imagined perspective. Pointing is faster for target objects in the anterior than in the posterior half of imaginal space. This “front facilitation” is consistent with asymmetric sensory and biomechanical body properties (favoring the anterior half of body space), supporting claims of egocentric retrieval. However, front facilitation might actually result from spatial priming: Proximity differences might cause orienting objects to prime target objects more in the anterior than in the posterior half of imagined space. Using a modified perspectivetaking task that unconfounded front facilitation and spatial priming, two experiments identified separate influences of front facilitation and spatial priming when participants imagined perspectives within the surrounding environment or a remote environment.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2009
DOI
10.3758/PBR.16.2.295
Publisher Statement
This is a manuscript of an article published as Kelly, J.W. & McNamara, T.P. (2009). Facilitated pointing to remembered objects in front: Evidence for egocentric retrieval or spatial priming? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(2), 295-300. doi: 10.3758/PBR.16.2.295. Posted with permission.
Citation Information
Jonathan W. Kelly and Timothy P. McNamara. "Facilitated pointing to remembered objects in front: Evidence for egocentric retrieval or for spatial priming?" Psychnomic Bulletin & Review Vol. 16 Iss. 2 (2009) p. 295 - 300 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jonathan_kelly/22/