Three dimensional spatial memory and learning in real and virtual environments

Authors: Oman C.M.¹; Shebilske W.L.²; Richards J.T.³; Tubré T.C.²; Beall A.C.⁴; Natapoff A.⁴

Source: Spatial Cognition and Computation, Volume 2, Number 4, 2000 , pp. 355-372(18)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

Human orientation and spatial cognition partly depends on our ability to remember sets of visual landmarks and imagine their relationship to us from a different viewpoint. We normally make large body rotations only about a single axis which is aligned with gravity. However, astronauts who try to recognize environments rotated in 3 dimensions report that their terrestrial ability to imagine the relative orientation of remembered landmarks does not easily generalize. The ability of human subjects to learn to mentally rotate a simple array of six objects around them was studied in 1-G laboratory experiments. Subjects were tested in a cubic chamber (n = 73) and a equivalent virtual environment (n = 24), analogous to the interior of a space station node module. A picture of an object was presented at the center of each wall. Subjects had to memorize the spatial relationships among the six objects and learn to predict the direction to a specific object if their body were in a specified 3D orientation. Percent correct learning curves and response times were measured. Most subjects achieved high accuracy from a given viewpoint within 20 trials, regardless of roll orientation, and learned a second view direction with equal or greater ease. Performance of the subject group that used a head mounted display/head tracker was qualitatively similar to that of the second group tested in a physical node simulator. Body position with respect to gravity had a significant but minor effect on performance of each group, suggesting that results may also apply to weightless situations. A correlation was found between task performance measures and conventional paper-and-pencil tests of field independence and 2&3 dimensional figure rotation ability.

Keywords: mental imagery; mental rotation; spatial memory; spatial orientation; vestibular; vision

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Man Vehicle Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA (Address for Correspondence: Man Vehicle Laboratory, Room 37-219, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Fax: +1 (617) 258-8111; E-mail: coman@mit.edu) 2: Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4235, USA 3: Man Vehicle Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 4: Man Vehicle Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139

Publication date: 2000-01-01

Three dimensional spatial memory and learning in real and virtual environments

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