How would you describe a familiar route or put in order the landmarks along it? It depends on your cognitive style!

Abstract

Cognitive style refers to the preference in perceiving, organizing and remembering information. Different cognitive styles have been identified across the years. Amongst others, field-dependence/independence cognitive style is the extent to which the person perceives part of a field as discrete from the surrounding environment as a whole, rather than embedded in the field. Instead, visualizer/verbalizer cognitive style involves the preference in processing visual versus verbal information. Both cognitive styles can influence navigational behaviour. The present study aimed at clarifying the extent to which field-dependence/independence and visualizer/verbalizer cognitive styles affect route-based navigational tasks. Therefore, 44 healthy participants from L'Aquila City were assessed for their cognitive styles and were asked to perform two different navigational tasks: reorder paths using a series of photos depicting landmarks from L'Aquila (visually presented task, visual path task-VisPT); orally describe specific paths of L'Aquila (verbally presented task, verbal path task-VerPT). Results showed that the field-independence cognitive style predicted response times of VisPT, whereas the visualizer/verbalizer cognitive style predicted the instructions given when performing the VerPT, namely, the number of metrical distance indicators provided by participants. By investigating two different cognitive styles, the study clarifies that field-dependence/independence and visualizer/verbalizer cognitive styles can play a different role in spatial navigation and suggests that the material by which a navigational task is presented affects its performance.

Travel planning in men and women. Who is better?

“…Similarly, individuals show better wayfinding skills when environmental features are easily distinguishable by size, shape, or architectural style (Evans et al, 1984). Among internal factors, instead, environmental knowledge (Piccardi et al, 2019), spatial cognitive style (Bocchi et al, 2018;Bocchi, Palmiero, Nori, Verde, & Piccardi, 2019) and skills (i.e., mental imagery, cognitive flexibility, mental rotation, visuo-spatial working memory) that are strictly related to spatial ability (Bocchi et al, 2017;Piccardi, Bocchi, Palmiero, Verde, & Nori, 2017;Sharma, Chandra, Singh, & Mittal, 2016;Byrne, Becker, & Burgess, 2007;Schacter, Addis, & Buckner, 2007;Schacter, Benoit, & Szpunar, 2017;Meneghetti et al, 2016;Pazzaglia & De Beni, 2006;Pazzaglia, Meneghetti, & Ronconi, 2018;Lopez, Caffò, & Bosco, 2019;Lopez et al, 2020;Coluccia & Louse, 2004;Picucci, Caffò, & Bosco, 2011).…”

Studying Individual Differences in Spatial Cognition Through Differential Item Functioning Analysis

“…The investigation of differential item functioning (DIF) is a key methodology to show measurement similarities across different groups with respect to a certain feature [ 32 ]. Concerning the study of individual differences in spatial cognition, differences may arise in behavior, cognitive style, cognition, personality, attitudes, and demographic characteristics e.g., [ 11 , 31 , 71 , 72 ]. So, the use of DIF could make a substantial contribution to ensure a valid interpretation of group differences in those variables that affect spatial cognition.…”

Link Between Topographic Memory and the Combined Presentation of ADHD (ADHD-C): A Pilot Study

“…2) Topographic learning (TL), in which participants were asked to learn a fixed supra-span sequence (a path), which was calculated by considering the square span of the child + 2 squares according to standard procedures (5,89). In each trial, after the examiner presented the sequence, the child was invited to walk on the carpet to reproduce it, stepping out of the carpet when he/she had finished.…”