Viewpoints and Frames of Reference in Spatial Memory

Preface The purpose of the research reported in this dissertation was to explore and understand some of the underlying mechanisms involved in spatial cognition. Specifically, we focused on the contribution and interaction of non-visual and visual information toward the nature of egocentric and allocentric frames of references at various spatial scales (i.e. building size, room sized, and object layouts in peripersonal space). The following three chapters have either been previously published or are under preparation for submission. I am the major contribute to all aspects of the work. Active navigation and orientation-free spatial representations ". The author of the current thesis is the second author of this published work whose contribution include the development of the original idea and experimental design, data collection and analysis, and manuscript preparation. and Sun, H-J. titled " The importance of multiple viewpoints and different features in understanding our reference frame in spatial memory ". The author of the current thesis is the first author whose contribution include the development of the original idea and experimental design, data collection and analysis, and manuscript preparation. The second author is another graduate student whose contribution include the co-development iv of the original idea and experimental design and data collection. The third author is the supervisor of the second author who provided insightful comments on the interpretation of the data. The last author is the thesis supervisor. " Breaking down our reference frame: The role of different spatial properties and spatial updating in a scene recognition task ". The author of the current thesis is the first author whose contribution include the development of the original idea and experimental design, data collection and analysis, and manuscript preparation. The last author is the thesis supervisor. v Abstract Previous human behavioral research has provided support for the existence of different frames of reference utilized during spatial processing that can be dependent or independent of the observer. These are known respectively as egocentric and allocentric frames of reference. However, it has been difficult to dissociate these two different processes under realistic conditions. Importantly, how these frames of reference are influenced by the visual and non-visual information is not well understood. Therefore, the studies of this thesis evaluated spatial processing utilizing realistic and ecologically valid stimuli in environments of different scales, while systematically manipulating the visual and non-visual information available during learning. We demonstrated that non-visual information generated by actively walking through …