Transfer of spatial search between environments in human adults and young children (<i>Homo sapiens</i>): Implications for representation of local geometry by spatial systems

Lew, Adina R.; Usherwood, Barrie; Fragkioudaki, Frantzeska; Koukoumi, Varvara; Smith, Shamus P.; Austen, Joseph M.; McGregor, Anthony

doi:10.1002/dev.21109

Cited by 17 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Moreover, participants displayed a significant preference for navigating to the correct corner first during a test trial. Together, these results are consistent with other experiments that have demonstrated similar navigational transfer effects across environments of different shapes ( Lew et al, 2014 ; McGregor et al, 2006 ; Pearce et al, 2004 ; Tommasi & Polli, 2004 ), and are consistent with the idea that, during training, participants used a local geometric-cue in order to find the hidden goal. For example, participants may have learned during training that approaching an egocentrically encoded scene, such as the conjunction of two walls of different lengths, was associated with the goal ( Cheung, Stürzl, Zeil, & Cheng, 2008 ; McGregor et al, 2006 ; Pearce et al, 2004 ; Stürzl, Cheung, Cheng, & Zeil, 2008 ).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…One test trial was conducted in an arena that had walls the same color as the arena in which participants were trained. If participants transfer the local shape-information from the training to the test arena then they should preferentially search in the corner(s) of the test arena that match the local geometric features of the training arena ( Lew et al, 2014 ; McGregor et al, 2006 ; Pearce et al, 2004 ). A second test trial was conducted in which the test walls were a different color to the training walls.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It does not, however, state how organisms encode geometric information. Experiment 1 (see also: Lew et al, 2014 ; McGregor, Jones, Good, & Pearce, 2006 ; Poulter, Kosaki, Easton, & McGregor, 2013 ; Tommasi & Polli, 2004 ) shows that navigation that is based upon local geometric information transfers to an environment that has a different overall shape. Experiment 2, therefore, used this transfer procedure to determine if learning about local geometric cues could be blocked by learning about wall color information.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Blocking spatial navigation across environments that have a different shape.

Buckley¹,

Smith

Haselgrove

2016

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cogniti

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According to the geometric module hypothesis, organisms encode a global representation of the space in which they navigate, and this representation is not prone to interference from other cues. A number of studies, however, have shown that both human and non-human animals can navigate on the basis of local geometric cues provided by the shape of an environment. According to the model of spatial learning proposed by Miller and Shettleworth (2007, 2008), geometric cues compete for associative strength in the same manner as non-geometric cues do. The experiments reported here were designed to test if humans learn about local geometric cues in a manner consistent with the Miller-Shettleworth model. Experiment 1 replicated previous findings that humans transfer navigational behavior, based on local geometric cues, from a rectangle-shaped environment to a kite-shaped environment, and vice versa. In Experiments 2 and 3, it was observed that learning about non-geometric cues blocked, and were blocked by, learning about local geometric cues. The reciprocal blocking observed is consistent with associative theories of spatial learning; however, it is difficult to explain the observed effects with theories of global-shape encoding in their current form.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Blocking spatial navigation across environments that have a different shape.

Buckley¹,

Smith

Haselgrove

2016

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cogniti

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“…For TD children and adults, the process of combining features with geometry appears to operate seamlessly and in parallel at the behavioral level. When adults re-establish orientation, they likely establish their current heading direction by comparing it to a stored global representation of the spatial layout (Lew et al, 2014). Like adults, young children appear to combine geometry with features efficiently, presumably comparing their current heading to a stored geometric representation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Geometric and featural systems, separable and combined: Evidence from reorientation in people with Williams syndrome

Ferrara

Landau

2015

Cognition

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Spatial reorientation by humans and other animals engages geometric representations of surface layouts as well as featural landmarks; however, the two types of information are thought to be behaviorally and neurally separable. In this paper, we examine the use of these two types of information during reorientation among children and adults with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic disorder accompanied by abnormalities in brain regions that support use of both geometry and landmarks. Previous studies of reorientation in adolescents and adults with WS have shown deficits in the ability to use geometry for reorientation, but intact ability to use features, suggesting that the two systems can be differentially impaired by genetic disorder. Using a slightly modified layout, we found that many WS participants could use geometry, and most could use features along with geometry. However, the developmental trajectories for the two systems were quite different from one other, and different from those found in typical development. Purely geometric responding was not correlated with age in WS, and search processes appeared similar to those in typically developing (TD) children. In contrast, use of features in combination with geometry was correlated with age in WS, and search processes were distinctly different from TD children. The results support the view that use of geometry and features stem from different underlying mechanisms, that the developmental trajectories and operation of each are altered in WS, and that combination of information from the two systems is atypical. Given brain abnormalities in regions supporting the two kinds of information, our findings suggest that the co-operation of the two systems is functionally altered in this genetic syndrome.

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“…Pigeons searched there more than chicks, which led the authors to the conclusion that pigeons relied primarily on medial axes, whereas chicks primarily used local geometry followed by medial axes. There is also evidence that humans are able to use the principal axis (Ambosta, Reichert, & Kelly, 2013;Bodily, Eastman, & Sturz, 2011) and that they have both local and global representations available to them (Buckley, Smith, & Haselgrove, 2016;Lew et al, 2014). Of interest, Figure 4.…”

Section: P R E -P U B L I C a T I O N P R O O F Pre-publication Proofmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Suboptimal Choice Tells Us About the Control of Behavior

McGregor¹

2020

CCBR

Self Cite

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The many cue types that animals are able to use for both long-and short-scale navigation have been studied extensively, and a well-researched literature has developed into the strategies that have evolved to exploit information provided by these different cues. Less well understood are questions of how animals select different cues to learn about, and the conditions for learning based on these cues. These queries have tended to concern psychologists interested in the extent to which the principles of associative learning apply to spatial learning. The question is of interest because the predictions of associative learning theories are often at odds with spatial learning theories, which instead tend to emphasize the special types of representation and learning process necessary for navigation. Here I examine spatial learning from an associative perspective, starting with the question of what kinds of associations are formed in associative learning and how these may fit within our knowledge of spatial learning. I then examine the conditions of learning, including the effects of prior experience on spatial learning in terms of both latent inhibition and perceptual learning, changes to the attention paid to spatial stimuli as a result of their predictive history, and the extent to which redundancy-when multiple cues predict same outcome-affects learning. The effects are illustrated mostly with examples from the associative learning literature, which is often with rodents or pigeons. But where possible, I have demonstrated similar effects in more diverse species and have tried to indicate the general learning effects that associative learning theories predict.

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Transfer of spatial search between environments in human adults and young children (Homo sapiens): Implications for representation of local geometry by spatial systems

Cited by 17 publications

References 64 publications

Blocking spatial navigation across environments that have a different shape.

Blocking spatial navigation across environments that have a different shape.

Geometric and featural systems, separable and combined: Evidence from reorientation in people with Williams syndrome

What Suboptimal Choice Tells Us About the Control of Behavior

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