Crossing boundaries: global reorientation following transfer from the inside to the outside of an arena

Buckley, Matthew G.; Holden, Luke J.; Spicer, Stuart G.; Smith, Alastair D.; Haselgrove, Mark

Abstract

In two spatial navigation experiments, human participants were asked to find a hidden goal (a Wi-Fi signal) that was located in one of the right-angled corners of a kite-shaped (Experiment 1) or a cross-shaped (Experiment 2) virtual environment. Goal location was defined solely with respect to the geometry of the environment. Following this training, in a test conducted in extinction, participants were placed onto the outside of the same environments and asked to locate the Wi-Fi signal. The results of both experiments revealed that participants spent more time searching in regions on the outside of the environments that were closest to where the Wi-Fi signal was located during training. These results are difficult to explain in terms of analyses of spatial navigation and re-orientation that emphasize the role of local representational encoding or view matching. Instead, we suggest that these results are better understood in terms of a global representation of the shape of the environment.

Citation

Buckley, M. G., Holden, L. J., Spicer, S. G., Smith, A. D., & Haselgrove, M. (2019). Crossing boundaries: global reorientation following transfer from the inside to the outside of an arena. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 45(3), 322-337. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000206

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 12, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jul 1, 2019
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Feb 19, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 19, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition
• Print ISSN: 2329-8456
• Electronic ISSN: 2329-8464
• Publisher: American Psychological Association
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 322-337
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000206
• Keywords: spatial learning, geometric module, associative learning, navigation, environmental boundary
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1566792
• Publisher URL: https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2019-25507-001.html
• Contract Date: Feb 19, 2019