hide
Free keywords:
-
Abstract:
Although recent studies have brought new insight into the mechanisms of
spatial memory and cognitive strategies during navigation, most of these
studies have concerned two-dimensional navigation and little is known
regarding the problem of three-dimensional (3D) spatial memory. We
found previously that memorizing complex 3D-structured corridors was
easier with natural self-motion that included only yaw turns, and vertical
translations facing the walls at vertical sections. This suggests that when
only sideways (yaw) mental rotations had to be performed in order to shift
from the experienced egocentric to the allocentric reference frame where
recognition was tested, memorization of such corridors was improved. In
the present investigation we studied the effect of tilting separately subjectamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lsquo;s
body axis and self-motionamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lsquo;s rotation axis relative to gravity. With a
computerized 3D reconstruction task of the maze, we examined whether
having any single rotation axis was enough to facilitate this reference shift
or, if not, what aspect of the terrestrial conditionwhere visual
displacement rotation, gravity and body axes were alignedled to better
performance. Field dependent (FD) and independent (FI) subjects, as
determined by the rod and frame test, showed distinct effects of the
navigation conditions. The FD group performance was markedly impaired
when gravity and body axis were in conflict, independently of the rotation
axis, whereas FI performance only slightly worsened when the body was
tilted and the rotation axis remained aligned with gravity. Moreover, tilting
the body in the control condition only worsened performance for the FD
group.
