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Effect of Cognitive Style on Topographical Learning Across Life Span: Insights From Normal Development
Abstract
Notwithstanding its well‐established role on high‐demanding spatial navigation tasks during adulthood, the effect of field dependence–independence during the acquisition of spatial navigation skills is almost unknown. This study assessed for the first time the effect of field dependence–independence on topographical learning (TL) across the life span: 195 individuals, including 54 healthy young‐adults (age‐range = 20–30), 46 teenagers (age‐range = 11–14), and 95 children (age‐range = 6–9) participated in this study. Field dependence–independence interacted with age in predicting TL. Also during childhood higher field independence was associated with better performances but not later in the life, that is, during adolescence and adulthood. This result suggests that field dependence–independence may have a role in fostering the acquisition of TL.
... Instead of replicating the sequence by tapping blocks as in the CBT, the sequence is demonstrated and replicated using a pattern of squares placed on the floor and walking between them. Previous research has suggested that the WalCT has also been able to detect deficits in navigational memory, even when no deficits in other aspects of VSM are present [9,11,17,18]. When used together, the CBT and WalCT allow visuo-spatial memory to be assessed and compared within both a peri-personal and vista space setting [9,11,14,15,[18][19][20][21][22]. ...
... Previous research has suggested that the WalCT has also been able to detect deficits in navigational memory, even when no deficits in other aspects of VSM are present [9,11,17,18]. When used together, the CBT and WalCT allow visuo-spatial memory to be assessed and compared within both a peri-personal and vista space setting [9,11,14,15,[18][19][20][21][22]. This provides a more comprehensive understanding of visual spatial memory function to be determined compared to that using the CBT in isolation. ...
Dual-task activities are essential within everyday life, requiring visual-spatial memory (VSM) and mobility skills. Navigational memory is an important component of VSM needed to carry out everyday activities, but this is often not included in traditional tests such as the Corsi block tapping test (CBT). The Walking Corsi Test (WalCT) allows both VSM and navigational memory to be tested together, as well as allowing measures of gait to be collected, thus providing a more complete understanding of dual-task function. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an increasingly complex cognitive task on gait in a healthy adult population, using the WalCT and body-worn inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors. Participants completed both the CBT and WalCT, where they were asked to replicate increasingly complex sequences until they were no longer able to carry this out correctly. IMU sensors were worn on the shins throughout the WalCT to assess changes in gait as task complexity increased. Results showed that there were significant differences in several gait parameters between completing a relatively simple cognitive task and completing a complex task. The type of memory used also appeared to have an impact on some gait variables. This indicates that even within a healthy population, gait is affected by cognitive task complexity, which may limit function in everyday dual-task activities.
... Among external factors, there are environment configuration, landmarks visual accessibility, circulation systems, and sign age [5][6]. Differently, between internal factors, there are: the individual's inclination to capture some environmental information rather than others (field dependence/independence: [7][8][9][10][11]), gender ( [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]), age ( [20][21][22][23][24][25]`, familiarity with the environment and job-related expertise ( [4,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]). Internal factors can also include the navigational strategies that the individual prefers to use to navigate. ...
Background: Military pilots show high visuo-spatial skills. Previous studies demonstrate that they are better in mental rotating a target, in taking different perspectives, in estimating distances, in travel planning and in topographic memory. Here, we compared navigational cognitive styles between military pilots and people without flight experience. Pilots were expected to be more survey users than non-pilots, showing higher navigational strategies. Method: 106 jet military pilots of Italian Air Force and 92 non-pilots were enrolled in order to investigate group differences in navigational styles. Participants were asked to perform a reduced version of the Spatial Cognitive Style Test – SCST, consisting of six tasks that allow to distinguish individuals in landmark (people orient themselves by using a figurative memory for environmental objects), route (people use an egocentric representation of the space) and survey (people have a map-like representation of the space) users. Results: In line with our hypothesis, military pilots mainly adopt a survey style, whereas non-pilots mainly adopt the route style. In addition, pilots outperformed non pilots in both the 3D-Rotation task and Map Description Task. Conclusion: Military flight expertise influences some aspects of the spatial ability, leading to enhance human navigation. Although, it must be considered that they are a population whose navigational skills were already high at the time of selection at the academy before formal training began.
... Among the external factors are environmental configuration, landmark visual accessibility, circulation systems and signage [5,6]. In contrast, internal factors include the individual's inclination to capture some environmental information instead of other (field dependence/independence [7][8][9][10][11]), gender [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], age [20][21][22][23][24][25], familiarity with the environment and job-related expertise [4,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Internal factors can also include the navigational strategies that the individual prefers to use to navigate. ...
Background:
Military pilots show advanced visuospatial skills. Previous studies demonstrate that they are better at mentally rotating a target, taking different perspectives, estimating distances and planning travel and have a topographic memory. Here, we compared navigational cognitive styles between military pilots and people without flight experience. Pilots were expected to be more survey-style users than nonpilots, showing more advanced navigational strategies.
Method:
A total of 106 military jet pilots from the Italian Air Force and 92 nonpilots from the general population matched for education with the pilots were enrolled to investigate group differences in navigational styles. The participants were asked to perform a reduced version of the Spatial Cognitive Style Test (SCST), consisting of six tasks that allow us to distinguish individuals in terms of landmark (people orient themselves by using a figurative memory for environmental objects), route (people use an egocentric representation of the space) and survey (people have a map-like representation of the space) user styles.
Results:
In line with our hypothesis, military pilots mainly adopt the survey style, whereas nonpilots mainly adopt the route style. In addition, pilots outperformed nonpilots in both the 3D Rotation Task and Map Description Task.
Conclusions:
Military flight expertise influences some aspects of spatial ability, leading to enhanced human navigation. However, it must be considered that they are a population whose navigational skills were already high at the time of selection at the academy before formal training began.
... Specifically, we hypothesized that FI cognitive style (Witkin 1950) would reduce the encoding alignment effect as assessed by the VR-WalCT (Nori et al. 2015a;Nori et al. 2015b): FI individuals are usually more accurate and faster in perspective-taking tasks (Boccia et al. 2016;Boccia et al. 2019), due to the well-documented ability to rely on an internal frame of reference to cope with cognitive restructuring (i.e., disembedding and perspectivism). In other words, we hypothesized that FI cognitive style predicts better performance in the VR-WalCT task, especially when spatial updating is required, namely, when the spatial positions must be retrieved from a different perspective of a remote encoding path. ...
Field independence (FI) is the extent to which a person perceives part of a field as discrete from the surrounding field rather than embedded in the field. Several studies proposed that it represents a cognitive style that is a relatively stable individuals' predisposition towards information processing. This study investigated the effects of Field Independence/Field Dependence (FI/FD) cognitive style on topographic memory in a virtual environment. Seventy-nine college students completed the Embedded Figure Test as a measure of FI/FD cognitive style and learned two paths in the VR-Walking Corsi Test apparatus. After the learning phase, participants had to reproduce the paths from a familiar perspective or unfamiliar perspectives. Data showed that FI cognitive style predicted the ability to reproduce a path from unfamiliar perspectives, suggesting a different impact of the angle degree. Results are discussed considering the facilitation of body axes references and the increasing difficulty due to maintaining online perspectives with higher angle degrees that increase the visuo-spatial working memory cognitive load. These results support the idea that FI predicts human navigation.
... Environment learning is known to relate to visuospatial abilities (Hegarty et al., 2006) already at 5-6 years old (e.g., Purser et al., 2012Purser et al., , 2015Merrill et al., 2016;Thomas et al., 2016). For example, 6-year-olds' performance in the Walking Corsi Test (WalCT) was found related to individual visuospatial skills, such as fieldindependent cognitive style (Boccia et al., 2019); and, when the squares were identified using images of landmarks, performance related to verbal abilities, such as grammar comprehension (Piccardi et al., 2015). The few studies on individuals with DS (Davis et al., 2014;Farran et al., 2015;Purser et al., 2015) found that their environment learning (especially in reproducing a path) was related to their visuospatial reasoning [measured with Raven's colored progressive matrixes [CPM; Raven et al., 1998]] and other cognitive abilities (executive control, attention and memory). ...
Analyzing navigational abilities and related aspects in individuals with Down syndrome (DS) is of considerable interest because of its relevance to everyday life. This study investigates path learning, the conditions favoring it, and the cognitive abilities involved. A group of 30 adults with DS and 32 typically-developing (TD) children matched on receptive vocabulary were shown a 4 × 4 Floor Matrix and asked to repeat increasingly long sequences of steps by walking on the grid. The sequences were presented under two learning conditions, one called Oral instructions (participants received verbal instructions such as “turn right” or “turn left”), the other Observation (participants watched the experimenter's moves). Participants were also assessed on verbal and visuospatial cognitive measures. The results showed a similarly better performance in both groups when the Floor Matrix task was administered in the Observation as opposed to the Oral instructions condition. As for the relation with cognitive abilities, in the Floor Matrix task in the Oral instructions condition, individuals with DS showed an effect of both verbal and visuospatial abilities, which was only positive for verbal ability. The effect of verbal and visuospatial abilities was negligible in the TD group. In the Observation condition, performance was predicted by sequential working memory in both groups. Overall, these results shed light on path learning in individuals with DS, showing that they benefited from the Observation condition, and that the involvement of their cognitive abilities depended on the learning condition.
... The WalCT is thus presented in a vista space setting (i.e., the space can be visually experienced from a single location, Montello, 1993) and, unlike classical VSWM tasks, it requires whole-body movements within this controlled space (see Piccardi et al., 2008; 2019; see also Barhorst-Cates, 2019;Klencklen et al., 2017;Mitolo et al., 2015 for a similar setting). This task has been designed to be usedcombined with the classical CBTto examine individual differences in visuo-spatial memory with different scales of space in experimental conditions (e.g., Boccia et al., 2019b;Palmiero et al., 2015;Palmiero & Piccardi, 2017;Piccardi et al., 2008;2019;Verde et al., 2015). It is also used in clinical practice (see Piccardi et al., 2013) to detect navigational memory impairments in clinical populations with no other visuo-spatial memory deficits, e.g., in brain damaged patients (see Piccardi et al., 2010;, or individuals with developmental topographical disorientation (see Bianchini et al., 2010). ...
This study newly assessed visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) in young and older adults with an extended version of the backward Corsi Blocks Task (CBT): the backward Walking Corsi Test (WalCT). It involves recalling sequences of spatial locations while moving in an indoor space (2.5 × 3m) in which the CBT layout is recreated on the floor. The specific contribution of the backward WalCT (beyond that of the backward CBT) to explaining age-related effects on spatial rotation abilities was explored. Seventy young adults and 56 older adults performed the backward WalCT, classic VSWM tasks, self-assessments on pleasure in exploring and spatial anxiety, and mental rotation and perspective-taking tasks. Mediation models for the mental rotation and perspective-taking measures showed a direct age-related effect on both the backward WalCT and backward CBT, and an indirect one on the two spatial rotation abilities, mediated by the backward WalCT and – partly – the backward CBT. In particular, age-related effects on mental rotation were explained by the backward WalCT, while those on perspective-taking were explained by both the backward WalCT and backward CBT. The backward WalCT can be considered a measure suitable for assessing VSWM in older adults, which also explains age-related effects on mental rotation and perspective-taking performance.
... Other studies found additional cognitive abilities involved in path learning (again after exploring VE), including attention, perception, memory and executive functions (Purser et al., 2012;Nys et al., 2015). There is also evidence of 6 year old performance in the WalCT being related to individual visuo-spatial factors, such as field-independent cognitive style (Boccia et al., 2019), and even verbal abilities (such as grammar comprehension, when the squares used in the WalCT are identified with images reproducing landmarks; Piccardi et al., 2015). ...
Environment learning is essential in everyday life. In individuals with Down syndrome (DS), this skill has begun to be examined using virtual exploration. Previous studies showed that individuals with DS can learn and remember paths in terms of sequences of turns and straight stretches, albeit with some difficulty, and this learning is supported by their cognitive abilities. This study further investigates environment learning in the DS population, newly examining their ability to learn a path from actual movements, and to learn increasingly long paths, and how their performance relates to their visuo-spatial abilities and everyday spatial activities. A group of 30 individuals with DS and 30 typically-developing (TD) children matched for receptive vocabulary performed a 4 × 4 Floor Matrix task in a grid comprising 16 squares (total area 2.3 × 2.3 meters). The task involved repeating increasingly long sequences of steps by actually moving in the grid. The sequences were presented in two learning conditions, called Observation (when participants watched the experimenter’s moves), or Map (when they were shown a map reproducing the path). Several visuo-spatial measures were also administered. The results showed a clear difference between the two groups’ performance in the individual visuo-spatial measures. In the Floor Matrix task, after controlling for visuo-spatial reasoning ability, both groups benefited to the same degree from the Observation condition vis-à-vis the Map condition, and no group differences emerged. In the group with DS, visuo-spatial abilities were more predictive of performance in the Floor Matrix task in the Observation condition than in the Map condition. The same was true of the TD group, but this difference was much less clear-cut. The visuo-spatial working memory and visualization tasks were the strongest predictors of Floor Matrix task performance. Finally, the group with DS showed a significant relation between Floor Matrix task performance in the Observation condition and everyday spatial activity. These results enlarge on what we know about path learning in individuals with DS and its relation to their visuo-spatial abilities. These findings are discussed within the frame of spatial cognition and the atypical development domain.
In the last decade, several cases affected by Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD) have been described. DTD consists of a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting the ability to orient in the environment despite well-preserved cognitive functions, and in the absence of a brain lesion or other neurological or psychiatric conditions. Described cases showed different impairments in navigational skills ranging from topographic memory deficits to landmark agnosia. All cases lacked a mental representation of the environment that would allow them to use high-order spatial orientation strategies. In addition to the single case studies, a group study performed in Canada showed that the disorder is more widespread than imagined. The present work intends to investigate the occurrence of the disorder in 1,698 young Italian participants. The sample is deliberately composed of individuals aged between 18 and 35 years to exclude people who could manifest the loss of the ability to navigate as a result of an onset of cognitive decline. The sample was collected between 2016 and 2019 using the Qualtrics platform, by which the Familiarity and Spatial Cognitive Style Scale and anamnestic interview were administered. The data showed that the disorder is present in 3% of the sample and that the sense of direction is closely related to town knowledge, navigational strategies adopted, and gender. In general, males use more complex navigational strategies than females, although DTD is more prevalent in males than in females, in line with the already described cases. Finally, the paper discusses which protective factors can reduce DTD onset and which intervention measures should be implemented to prevent the spread of navigational disorders, which severely impact individuals’ autonomy and social relationships.
Travel planning (TP) is a kind of planning devoted to spatial orientation that is distinguishable from general planning (GP). It is crucial to reach a destination, since it allows to select the best route according to the environmental features (e.g., the one with little traffic or the safest). TP is also needed to avoid obstacles along the way and to put in place effective strategies to support navigation. TP involves several cognitive processes, such as visuo-spatial and topographic memory as well as other executive functions (i.e., general planning, cognitive flexibility, problem solving, and divergent thinking) and it is affected by internal factors (such as gender, cognitive strategies, age). Here, we focused on the effects of visuo-spatial (VSWM) and topographic (TWM) working memory on TP, using the Minefield Task (MFT), a new tool aimed at testing TP. We tested VSWM, TWM, GP, and TP in 44 college students. First, we checked for gender differences in all the tasks proposed and then assessed the relation among VSWM, TWM, GP, and TP. Results showed that even though gender difference could be found on TWM, GP, and TP, significative correlations emerged among TP, VSWM, and GP as well as a tendency to significance for VSWM and GP in the regression analyses. Though more evidence is needed, these results suggest that when a brand-new route is computed, GP and VSWM can be the most relevant processes, whereas topographic memory was less involved, probably because the MFT does not require to recall a route from memory. The implications of these results in clinical settings are discussed.
The acquisition of information on the timing of events or actions (temporal learning) occurs in both the subsecond and suprasecond range. However, although relevant differences between participants have been reported in temporal learning, the role of dimensions of individual variability in affecting performance in such tasks is still unclear. Here we investigated this issue, assessing the effect of field-dependent/independent cognitive style on temporal learning in the suprasecond range. Since different mechanisms mediate timing when a temporal representation is self-generated, and when it depends on an external referent, temporal learning was assessed in two conditions. Participants observed a stimulus across six repetitions and reproduced it. Unbeknownst to them, in an internally-based learning (IBL) condition, the stimulus duration was fixed within a trial, although the number of events defining it varied; in an externally-cued learning (ECL) condition, the stimulus was defined by the same number of events within each trial, although its duration varied. The effect of the reproduction modality was also assessed (motor vs. perceptual). Error scores were higher in IBL compared to ECL; the reverse was true for variability. Field-independent individuals performed better than field-dependent ones only in IBL, as further confirmed by correlation analyses. Findings provide evidence that differences in dimensions of variability in high-level cognitive functioning, such as field dependence/independence, significantly affect temporal learning in the suprasecond range, and that this effect depends on the type of temporal representation fostered by the specific task demands.
Unlike for other abilities, children do not receive systematic spatial orientation training at school, even though navigational training during adulthood improves spatial skills. We investigated whether navigational training programme (NTP) improved spatial orientation skills in pre-schoolers. We administered 12-week NTP to seventeen 4- to 5-year-old children (training group, TG). The TG children and 17 age-matched children (control group, CG) who underwent standard didactics were tested twice before (T0) and after (T1) the NTP using tasks that tap into landmark, route and survey representations. We determined that the TG participants significantly improved their performances in the most demanding navigational task, which is the task that taps into survey representation. This improvement was significantly higher than that observed in the CG, suggesting that NTP fostered the acquisition of survey representation. Such representation is typically achieved by age seven. This finding suggests that NTP improves performance on higher-level navigational tasks in pre-schoolers.
Field independence refers to the ability to perceive details from the surrounding context as a whole and to represent the environment by relying on an internal reference frame. Conversely, field dependence individuals tend to focus their attention on single environmental features analysing them individually. This cognitive style affects several visuo-spatial abilities including spatial memory. This study assesses both the effect of field independence and field dependence on performance displayed on virtual environments of different complexity. Forty young healthy individuals took part in this study. Participants performed the Embedded Figures Test for field independence or dependence assessment and a new spatial memory recognition test. The spatial memory recognition test demanded to memorize a green box location in a virtual room picture. Thereafter, during ten trials participants had to decide if a green box was located in the same position as in the sample picture. Five of the pictures were correct. The information available in the virtual room was manipulated. Hence, two different experimental conditions were tested: a virtual room containing all landmarks and a virtual room with only two cues. Accuracy and reaction time were registered. Analyses demonstrated that higher field independent individuals were related to better spatial memory performance in two landmarks condition and were faster in all landmark condition. In addition, men and women did not differ in their performance. These results suggested that cognitive style affects spatial memory performance and this phenomenon is modulated by environment complexity. This does not affect accuracy but time spent. Moreover, field dependent individuals are unable to organize the navigational field by relying on internal reference frames when few landmarks are available, and this causes them to commit more errors.
Field independence (FI) has been found to correlate with a wide range of cognitive processes requiring cognitive restructuring. Cognitive restructuring, that is going beyond the information given by the setting, is pivotal in creating stable mental representations of the environment, the so-called “cognitive maps,” and it affects visuo-spatial abilities underpinning environmental navigation. Here we evaluated whether FI, by fostering cognitive restructuring of environmental cues on the basis of an internal frame of reference, affects the learning and retrieval of a novel environment. Fifty-four participants were submitted to the Embedded Figure Test (EFT) for assessing their Cognitive Style (CS) and to the Perspective Taking/Spatial Orientation Test (PTSOT) and the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale (SBSOD) for assessing their spatial perspective taking and orientation skills. They were also required to learn a path in a novel, real environment (route learning, RL), to recognize landmarks of this path among distracters (landmark recognition, LR), to order them (landmark ordering, LO) and to draw the learned path on a map (map drawing, MD). Retrieval tasks were performed both immediately after learning (immediate-retrieval) and the day after (24 h-retrieval). Performances on EFT significantly correlated with the time needed to learn the path, with MD (both in the immediate- and in the 24 h- retrievals), results on LR (in 24-retrieval) and performances on PTSOT. Interestingly, we found that gender interacted with CS on RL (time of learning) and MD. Females performed significantly worse than males only if they were classified as FD, but did not differ from males if they were classified as FI. These results suggest that CS affects learning and retrieval of navigational environment, especially when a map-like representation is required. We propose that CS may be pivotal in forming the cognitive map of the environment, likely due to the higher ability of FI individuals in restructuring environmental cues in a global and flexible long-term representation of the environment.
The investigation of the role of emotional landmarks on human navigation has been almost totally neglected in psychological research. Therefore, the extent to which positive and negative emotional landmarks affect topographical memory as compared to neutral emotional landmark was explored. Positive, negative and neutral affect-laden images were selected as landmarks from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) Inventory. The Walking Corsi test (WalCT) was used in order to test the landmark-based topographical memory. Participants were instructed to learn and retain an eight-square path encompassing positive, negative or neutral emotional landmarks. Both egocentric and allocentric frames of references were considered. Egocentric representation encompasses the object’s relation to the self and it is generated from sensory data. Allocentric representation expresses a location with respect to an external frame regardless of the self and it is the basis for long-term storage of complex layouts. In particular, three measures of egocentric and allocentric topographical memory were taken into account: (1) the ability to learn the path; (2) the ability to recall by walking the path five minutes later; (3) the ability to reproduce the path on the outline of the WalCT. Results showed that both positive and negative emotional landmarks equally enhanced the learning of the path as compared to neutral emotional landmarks. In addition, positive emotional landmarks improved the reproduction of the path on the map as compared to negative and neutral emotional landmarks. These results generally show that emotional landmarks enhance egocentric-based topographical memory, whereas positive emotional landmarks seem to be more effective for allocentric-based topographical memory.
To successfully navigate within an environment, individuals have to organize the spatial information in terms of salient landmarks, paths and general layout of the navigational environment. They may differ in the strategy they adopt to orientate themselves, with some individuals preferring to use salient landmarks (landmark spatial style, L-SS), others preferring to plan routes or paths through an egocentric strategy in which landmarks are connected with each other (route spatial style, R-SS) and others still create a global map-like configuration of the environment regardless of their own position in the environment (survey spatial style, S-SS). Here, we assessed whether Field independence (FI), that is the extent to which the individual perceives part of a field as discrete from the surrounding field rather than embedded in the field, predicted the individual’s spatial style. We assessed the individual’s spatial style using the spatial cognitive style test (SCST) and measured FI using the group embedded figure test (GEFT). We found that FI predicted general spatial ability, with a higher level of FI being associated with better performances on the SCST. Also, Field-independent individuals showed a marked preference for an S-SS. These results suggest that a higher level of FI is associated with better performance on higher level spatial tasks (i.e. R-SS and S-SS) that is tasks requiring individuals to restructure the “navigational field” according to the navigational goal. The results also suggest that a higher level of FI makes individuals more prone to use a global and complex map-like representation of the environment.
Objective:
Several authors have proposed that the cerebellum has an important role in functions of higher order as a general mode of sequence detection, independently from the nature of the information. The aim of this study was to verify whether the cerebellum mediates the processing of navigational sequential information and to determine whether it is influenced by the modality of the stimuli presentation.
Method:
We tested 12 cerebellar patients and 12 healthy age-matched participants in 2 comparable navigational tasks (Walking Corsi Test and the Magic Carpet) requiring to memorizing a sequence of spatial locations. The 2 tasks differ each other for the modality of stimuli presentation: in the Walking Corsi Test the sequence is shown by an examiner that walks on the carpet, whereas in the Magic Carpet it is shown by a computer that lights up the tiles in the sequence. We hypothesize that different mental processes are implicated between the Walking Corsi Test and the Magic Carpet. Indeed, whereas watching the examiner, who performs the sequence on the carpet, allows the patient to simulate the action mentally in the Walking Corsi Test, such simulation cannot be triggered in the Magic Carpet.
Results:
Our results showed that cerebellar patients obtained scores significantly lower than control participants only in the Magic Carpet.
Conclusions:
We interpreted the patients' performance as a specific deficit in detecting and ordering single independent stimuli as a sequence, when the maintenance of stimulus-response associations is more demanding. (PsycINFO Database Record
This study explored the relationship between cognitive styles and achievement in English as a foreign language (EFL). To this end, the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test, consisting of draw a woman test (DAWT) and draw a man test (DAMT), was administered to 658 grade two, three and four students who had registered in Imam Reza primary schools in Mashhad, Iran. The DAWT and DAMT were marked by two raters and averaged to have a more comprehensive measure of the students’ conceptualization of human figure called draw a person test (DAPT). The mean score on the DAPT was utilized to assign the participants to field-dependent and field-independent groups. The participants’ scores on the oral and written examinations held in the middle and end of school year were also obtained from their schools and averaged to get a total test score as an indicator of EFL achievement. The correlational analysis of the data established a significant relationship between cognitive styles and oral and total EFL achievement. Neither the field-dependent nor field-independent genus of cognitive styles related to the achievement. The independent samples ttest, however, showed that the field-independent primary school students’ EFL achievement was significantly higher than their FD counterparts. The results are discussed and suggestions are made for future research.
Field independence (FI) has been defined as the extent to which the individual perceives part of a field as discrete from the surrounding field, rather than embedded in the field. It has been proposed to represent a relatively stable pattern in individuals’ predisposition towards information processing. In the present study, we assessed the effect of FI on skills underpinning human navigation. Fifty Healthy individuals took part in this study. FI has been assessed by using the group embedded figures test (GEFT). Participants were also asked to perform several visuo-spatial orientation tasks, including the perspective taking/spatial orientation test (PTSOT), the mental rotation task (MRT) and the vividness task, as well as the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale, a self-reported questionnaire, which has been found to predict environmental spatial orientation ability. We found that performances on the GEFT significantly predicted performances on the PTSOT and the MRT. This result supports the idea that FI predicts human navigation.
In the present study we investigated the role of spatial locative comprehension in learning
and retrieving pathways when landmarks were available and when they were absent in a
sample of typically developing 6- to 11-year-old children. Our results show that the more
proficient children are in understanding spatial locatives the more they are able to learn
pathways, retrieve them after a delay and represent them on a map when landmarks are
present in the environment. These findings suggest that spatial language is crucial when individuals
rely on sequences of landmarks to drive their navigation towards a given goal but
that it is not involved when navigational representations based on the geometrical shape of
the environment or the coding of body movements are sufficient for memorizing and recalling
short pathways.
Spatial navigation is a fascinating behavior that is essential for our everyday lives. It involves nearly all sensory systems, it requires numerous parallel computations, and it engages multiple memory systems. One of the key problems in this field pertains to the question of reference frames: spatial information such as direction or distance can be coded egocentrically—relative to an observer—or allocentrically—in a reference frame independent of the observer. While many studies have associated striatal and parietal circuits with egocentric coding and entorhinal/hippocampal circuits with allocentric coding, this strict dissociation is not in line with a growing body of experimental data. In this review, we discuss some of the problems that can arise when studying the neural mechanisms that are presumed to support different spatial reference frames. We argue that the scale of space in which a navigation task takes place plays a crucial role in determining the processes that are being recruited. This has important implications, particularly for the inferences that can be made from animal studies in small scale space about the neural mechanisms supporting human spatial navigation in large (environmental) spaces. Furthermore, we argue that many of the commonly used tasks to study spatial navigation and the underlying neuronal mechanisms involve different types of reference frames, which can complicate the interpretation of neurophysiological data.
The aim of this study was to determine whether an egocentric topographical working memory (WM) deficit is present in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with respect to other forms of visuospatial WM. Further, we would investigate whether this deficit could be present in patients having AD without topographical disorientation (TD) signs in everyday life assessed through an informal interview to caregivers. Seven patients with AD and 20 healthy participants performed the Walking Corsi Test and the Corsi Block-Tapping Test. The former test requires memorizing a sequence of places by following a path and the latter is a well-known visuospatial memory task. Patients with AD also performed a verbal WM test to exclude the presence of general WM impairments. Preliminary results suggest that egocentric topographical WM is selectively impaired, with respect to visuospatial and verbal WM, even without TD suggesting an important role of this memory in the early stages of AD.
How we acquire and represent spatial information is one of the most important unsolved issues in spatial cognition. Siegel and White (1975) affirmed that different forms of environmental knowledge are acquired and represented depending on the type of information selected: landmark, characterized by environmental patterns that are perceptually salient or important for the person; route, based on the pathes generally used to connect landmarks; and survey, an overall configuration of the environment, similar to a map. According to these authors, anyone can reach survey representation with extensive experience of the environment. Recently, Pazzaglia and co-workers (2000) demonstrated. that these three types of representations correspond to three different spatial cognitive styles. Conversely, according to Montello (1998) a pure landmark or route representation does not exist; indeed, during their first exposure to the environment, people acquire and represent an overall survey configuration of it.
Our aim was to determine whether environmental familiarity and/or spatial cognitive style predict the way we acquire and represent spatial information.
Forty participants who had different degrees of familiarity with the Italian city of Bologna took part in the experiment. Familiarity with Bologna was evaluated using a questionnaire. This city was selected because it has a small and well-defined centre that can be easily explored on foot. Participants were further subdivided by spatial cognitive style to assess its weight in environmental representation. They performed six spatial tasks concerning Bologna that measured different spatial abilities, based on Siegel and White’s frameworks (1975).
We found that neither familiarity with the environment nor spatial cognitive style predict the correct solution of landmark tasks, whereas both familiarity with the environment and spatial cognitive style predict the correct solution of route and survey tasks. Thus, we can affirm that both familiarity with the environment and spatial cognitive style are important for acquiring and representing spatial information, but their involvement depends on task demands. To our knowledge, this is the first study in which knowledge of a real town has been measured. This ecological setting allowed us to propose a new model to explain individual differences in moving successfully through the environment.
Selective visuo-spatial memory deficits can seriously affect many aspects of daily life; for example, an individual may not remember where he put an object or which path he took to reach his destination. In general, visuo-spatial memory is assessed through pen-and-paper tests that mainly assess memory components in peripersonal space. Recent studies (Piccardi et al. in Exp Brain Res 206:171-177, 2010; Piccardi et al. in Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 18:362-384, 2011) have shown that brain-damaged patients selectively fail on navigation memory tasks but not on other tests of visuo-spatial memory ability. These findings underline the need for a standardized test that measures memory in navigation separately from other types of visuo-spatial memory. Here, we report the validation of the Walking Corsi Test (WalCT: Piccardi et al. in Neurosci Lett 432:127-131, 2008) on 289 individuals aged 15-86 years. The WalCT is a new instrument that assesses topographical memory in real environments and reproduces on a large-scale version the Corsi Block-Tapping Test (CBT: Corsi in Unpublished doctoral dissertation, McGill University, Montreal, 1972). The WalCT has been used in clinical practice and has proven sensitive in detecting navigational memory deficits even in individuals who have no other memory impairments (Piccardi et al. in Exp Brain Res 206:171-177, 2010; Piccardi et al. in Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 18:362-384, 2011; Bianchini et al. in Neuropsychologia 48:1563-1573, 2010 ).
Having good spatial skills strongly predicts achievement and attainment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields (e.g., Shea, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2001; Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009). Improving spatial skills is therefore of both theoretical and practical importance. To determine whether and to what extent training and experience can improve these skills, we meta-analyzed 217 research studies investigating the magnitude, moderators, durability, and generalizability of training on spatial skills. After eliminating outliers, the average effect size (Hedges's g) for training relative to control was 0.47 (SE = 0.04). Training effects were stable and were not affected by delays between training and posttesting. Training also transferred to other spatial tasks that were not directly trained. We analyzed the effects of several moderators, including the presence and type of control groups, sex, age, and type of training. Additionally, we included a theoretically motivated typology of spatial skills that emphasizes 2 dimensions: intrinsic versus extrinsic and static versus dynamic (Newcombe & Shipley, in press). Finally, we consider the potential educational and policy implications of directly training spatial skills. Considered together, the results suggest that spatially enriched education could pay substantial dividends in increasing participation in mathematics, science, and engineering. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Defects confined to spatial memory can severely affect a variety of daily life activities, such as remembering the location of objects or navigating the environment, until now the skills involved have been mostly assessed with regard to the visual domain using traditional pencil and paper tests. Our aim was to test the efficacy of a recently developed psychometric instrument (Walking Corsi Test: WalCT) to assess the specific contribution of spatial memory to the complex task of retrieving route knowledge. The WalCT is a 3 × 2.5-m version of the well-known Corsi Block-tapping Test (CBT), in which patients are required to memorize (and replicate) a sequence of body displacements. We assessed the ability of left and right brain-damaged patients, as well as healthy young and senior controls, to perform both the CBT and the WalCT. Results showed differences related to age in the healthy individuals and specific functional dissociations in the brain-damaged patients. The double dissociations found in this study demonstrate the importance of having a task able to detect navigational disorders, because virtual reality tasks are often much too difficult for aged brain-damaged patients to perform.
Recent reports show that humans and animals do not acquire information about routes and object locations in the same way. In spatial memory, a specific sub-system is hypothesized to be involved in encoding, storing and recalling navigational information, and it is segregated from the sub-system devoted to small-scale environment. We assessed this hypothesis in a sample of patients treated surgically for intractable temporal lobe epilepsy. We found double dissociations between learning and recall of spatial positions in large space versus small space. These results strongly support the hypothesis that two segregate systems process navigational memory for large-scale environments and spatial memory in small-scale environments.
The Corsi Block-Tapping task has been utilized as a measure of spatial memory in both clinical and research contexts for several decades. Despite its wide application, the task has been employed with extraordinary variability in administration and scoring and in the composition of stimulus item sets. We have generated a set of test items containing quasi-randomly derived block-tapping sequences. In another study, we investigated item difficulty as a function of path configuration and showed a decline in performance with increasing span capacity load. In the current cross-sectional study, we evaluated developmental differences in span capacity by measuring performances of school children from grade 1 (M age = 7 years) to grade 8 (M age = 14) and a young adult sample (M age = 21 years). Mean span capacity increased incrementally and linearly with age, and no gender difference was observed. The increase in performance with advancing age supports the notion that spatial immediate memory capacity increases with maturation throughout childhood. Comparisons indicated that the span capacity of eighth graders (M = 6.9) was not statistically different from that of the young adults (M = 7.1), suggesting an upper developmental plateau for spatial span in early adolescence. This study provides a normative database for this widely utilized measure of spatial memory.
The goals of this article are to elucidate trends and perspectives in the field of cognitive style research and to propose an integrated framework to guide future research. This is accomplished by means of a comprehensive literature review of the major advances and the theoretical and experimental problems that have accumulated over the years and by a discussion of the promising theoretical models that can be further developed, in part, with modern neuroscience techniques and with research from different psychological fields. On the basis of the research reviewed in this article, the author suggests that cognitive styles represent heuristics that individuals use to process information about their environment. These heuristics can be identified at multiple levels of information processing, from perceptual to metacognitive, and they can be grouped according to the type of regulatory function they exert on processes ranging from automatic data encoding to conscious executive allocation of cognitive resources.
In an effort to further investigation into critical development facets of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this book explores the reasoning processes that apply to geographic space and time. As a result of an iniative sponsored by the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), it treats the computational, cognitive and social science applications aspects of spatial and temporal reasoning in GIS. Essays were contributed by scholars from a broad spectrum of disciplines including: geography, cartography, surveying and engineering, computer science, mathematics and environmental and cognitive psychology.
Developmental research beginning in the 1970s has suggested that children's ability to form cognitive maps reaches adult levels during early adolescence. However, this research has used a variety of testing procedures, often in real-world environments, which have been difficult to share widely across labs and to use to probe components of mapping, individual differences in success, and possible mechanisms of development and reasons for individual variation. In this study, we charted the development of cognitive mapping using a virtual navigation paradigm, Silcton, that allows for testing samples of substantial size in a uniform way and in which adults show marked individual differences in the formation of accurate route representations and/or in route integration. The current study tested children aged between 8 and 16 years. In terms of components of normative development, children's performance reached adult levels of proficiency at around age 12, but route representation progressed significantly more quickly than route integration. In terms of individual differences, by age 12 children could be grouped into the same three categories evident in adults: imprecise navigators (who form only imprecise ideas of routes), non-integrators (who represent routes more accurately but are imprecise in relating two routes), and integrators (who relate the two routes and, thus, form cognitive maps). Thus, individual differences likely originate during childhood. In terms of correlates, perspective-taking skills predicted navigation performance better than mental rotation skills, in accord with the view that perspective taking operates on extrinsic spatial representations, whereas mental rotation taps intrinsic spatial representations.
Introduction:
Human navigation is a very complex ability that encompasses all four stages of human information processing (sensory input, perception/cognition, selection, and execution of an action), involving both cognitive and physical requirements. During flight, the pilot uses all of these stages and one of the most critical aspect is interference. In fact, spatial tasks competing for the same cognitive resource cause greater distraction from a concurrent task than another task that uses different resource modalities.
Methods:
Here we compared and contrasted the performance of pilots and nonpilots of both genders performing increasingly complex navigational memory tasks while exposed to various forms of interference. We investigated the effects of four different sources of interference: motor, spatial motor, verbal, and spatial environment, focusing on gender differences.
Results:
We found that flight experts perform better than controls (Pilots: 6.50 ± 1.29; Nonpilots: 5.45 ± 1.41). Furthermore, in the general population, navigational working memory is compromised only by spatial environmental interference (Nonpilots: 4.52 ± 1.50); female nonpilots were less able than male nonpilots. Also, the flight expert group showed the same interference, even if reduced (Pilots: 5.24 ± 0.92); moreover, we highlighted a complete absence of gender-related effects.
Discussion:
Spatial environmental interference is the only interference producing a decrease in performance. Nevertheless, pilots are less affected than the general population. This is probably a consequence of the need to commit substantial cognitive resources to process spatial information during flight.
Most prior studies regarding navigational efficiency of electronic maps mainly investigated map characteristics such as the frame of references of maps (track-up maps vs. north-up maps) and the map dimensionality (2D maps vs. 3D maps). However, relatively little research has been found regarding how user characteristics, especially a user’s cognitive style, affect the effectiveness of navigational displays. The present study examined how individuals’ field dependence-independence, as an essential dimension of cognitive styles, affects user performance in orienting and navigating tasks with 2D and 3D electronic maps. The results suggested field-independent individuals had higher mental rotation ability than field-dependent individuals. The results also indicated significant interactions between field dependence-independence and frame of reference on both orienting and navigating tasks. Field-independent (FI) individuals responded more quickly and with higher accuracy compared to field-dependent (FD) individuals when using north-up maps, but no such differences was revealed when track-up maps were used. This implication could be further utilized to improve user-centered designs of navigation displays by considering individual differences.
INTRODUCTION: The coding of space as near and far is not only determined by arm-reaching distance, but is also dependent on how the brain represents the extension of the body space. Recent reports suggest that the dissociation between reaching and navigational space is not limited to perception and action but also involves memory systems. It has been reported that gender differences emerged only in adverse learning conditions that required strong spatial ability.
METHODS: In this study we investigated navigational versus reaching memory in air force pilots and a control group without flight experience. We took into account temporal duration (working memory and long-term memory) and focused on working memory, which is considered critical in the gender diff erences literature.
RESULTS: We found no gender eff ects or flight hour effects in pilots but observed gender effects in working memory (but not in learning and delayed recall) in the nonpilot population (Women ’ s mean = 5.33; SD = 0.90; Men ’ s mean = 5.54; SD =0.90). We also observed a diff erence between pilots and nonpilots in the maintenance of on-line reaching information: pilots (mean = 5.85; SD = 0.76) were more efficient than nonpilots (mean = 5.21; SD = 0.83) and managed this type of information similarly to that concerning navigational space. In the navigational learning phase they also showed better navigational memory (mean = 137.83; SD = 5.81) than nonpilots (mean = 126.96; SD = 15.81) and were significantly more proficient than the latter group.
DISCUSSION: There is no gender difference in a population of pilots in terms of navigational abilities, while it emerges in a control group without flight experience. We found also that pilots performed better than nonpilots. This study suggests that once selected, male and female pilots do not diff er from each other in visuo-spatial abilities and spatial navigation.
The ability to learn complex environments may require the contribution of different types of working memory. Therefore, we investigated the development of different types of working memory (navigational, reaching, and verbal) in 129 typically developing children. We aimed to determine whether navigational working memory develops at the same rate as other types of working memory and whether the gender differences reported in adults are already present during development. We found that navigational working memory is less developed than both verbal and reaching working memory and that gender predicts performance only for navigational working memory. Our results are in line with reports that children made significantly more errors in far space than adults, showing that near space representation develops before far space representation.
We report normative data on topographical working memory collected through the Walking Corsi Test (WalCT; Piccardi et al., 2008) for developing a standard administration procedure to be used in clinical and educational practice. A total of 268 typically developing Italian children aged 4–11 years performed both WalCT and Corsi Block-Tapping Test (CBT; Corsi, 1972) a well-known visuo-spatial memory test. WalCT has already been validated in adults, demonstrat- ing sensitivity in detecting topographical memory deficits even in individuals who have no other memory impairments. Our results showed that age, but not sex, affected performances. Both girls and boys had a larger span on the CBT than the WalCT. The youngest group did not differ in performing WalCT and CBT, but from 5.6 years of age children performed better on CBT than WalCT, suggesting that memory in reaching space develops before topographical memory. Only after 5 years of age do children learn to process specifically topographical stimuli, suggesting that this happens when their environmental knowledge becomes operational and they increase environmental independence. We also discuss the importance to introduce WalCT in the clinical assessment.
Introduction:
Mental rotation ability has an important role in human navigation and, together with other cognitive abilities such as processing speed, working memory, and attention, is crucial for aircraft navigation. In the human performance literature, mental rotation tasks have consistently yielded reports of gender differences favoring men. The aim of this study was to compare the gender difference measured in a specialized population of aviators vs. a matched population of nonpilots.
Methods:
: Studied were 41 pilots (20 men and 21 women) and 38 nonpilots (20 men and 18 women) matched for age and education. Pilots were stratified for flying hours. Participants performed a mental rotation task (MRT) in which accuracy and response time were recorded, and also completed sense-of-direction (SOD) and spatial cognitive styles self-evaluation scales.
Results:
Men had significantly smaller response time in the MRT (men 279.6 +/- 147.0 s, women 401.6 +/- 361.3) and greater SOD (men's score 49.1 +/- 8.6, women's score 46.6 +/- 7.8), but these differences were absent among pilots. A positive relationship was also identified between pilots' response times and their flight hours.
Conclusion:
These data suggest that the effect of gender on the speed of cognitive spatial processing is absent in a population with aviation experience. Gender effects may be associated with a low spatial cognitive style, whereas in groups such as aviators, who are expected to have high spatial cognitive style, other factors such as experience may come into play.
The literature on sources of individual differences in field dependence-independence is reviewed, and findings on ontogenetic development and cross-cultural differences are incorporated into the theory of psychological differentiation. During the growth years, individuals develop toward greater field independence. Hormonal and X-linked genetic factors may influence development of specific cognitive components of the field-dependence-independence dimension. It is clear from a wide variety of data that the development of field independence is enhanced by appropriate training programs, child-rearing practices which encourage separation from parental authority, and "loose" social structures which permit individual autonomy. Among subsistence-level societies, members of nomadic hunting groups tend to be more field independent than members of sedentary farming groups. Viewed from an ecocultural perspective, this finding suggests a progression from relative field independence toward relative field dependence as cultural forms changed from early hunting to later agricultural economies. That developmental changes may proceed in opposite directions in the course of ontogeny and during cultural history is compatible with the bipolar conception of cognitive styles; the cognitive restructuring skills of field-independent individuals and the social-interpersonal competencies of field-dependent individuals have adaptive value in different life circumstances. (Author/MV)
We present the case of F.G., a healthy, normally developed 22-year-old male subject affected by a pervasive disorder in environmental orientation and navigation who presents no history of neurological or psychiatric disease. A neuro-radiological examination showed no evidence of anatomical or structural alterations to the brain. We submitted the subject for a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of the different cognitive processes involved in topographical orientation to evaluate his ability to navigate the spatial environment. The results confirmed a severe developmental topographical disorder and deficits in a number of specific cognitive processes directly or indirectly involved in navigation. The results are discussed with reference to the sole previously described case of developmental topographical disorientation (Pt1; Iaria et al., 2009). F.G. differs from the former case due to the following: the greater severity of his disorder, his complete lack of navigational skills, the failure to develop compensatory strategies, and the presence of a specific deficit in processing the spatial relationships between the parts of a whole. The present case not only confirms the existence of developmental topographical-skill disorders, but also sheds light on the architecture of topographical processes and their development in human beings.
In an effort to further investigation into critical development facets of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this book explores the reasoning processes that apply to geographic space and time. As a result of an iniative sponsored by the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), it treats the computational, cognitive and social science applications aspects of spatial and temporal reasoning in GIS. Essays were contributed by scholars from a broad spectrum of disciplines including: geography, cartography, surveying and engineering, computer science, mathematics and environmental and cognitive psychology.
Short title on half-title page: Memory and the medial temporal region of the brain. Thesis (Ph. D.)--McGill University, 1972. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-78). Microfilm of typescript.
The purposes of this report are to describe a design for the study of X linkage, to illustrate its application using cognitive test scores, and to offer a linkage hypothesis suggested by these data. Sixty-seven three-son families were examined for two X chromosome marker variables--red-green color vision and Xg(a) blood groups--and given a battery of cognitive tests of field dependence and spatial visualization abilities. Evidence was found to suggest that brothers who are identical in Xg(a) phenotype are more similar to each other in extent of field dependence than brothers who are different in Xg(a) phenotype. This result is tentative because of the small number of informative cases and the many linkage associations examined. If cross-validated, such a finding would be consistent with the proposition that an X chromosome gene contributes to the field dependence cognitive style.
Sex differences are often reported in spatial abilities. However, some studies show conflicting results, which can be ascribed to the complexity of the variables involved in the visuo-spatial domain. Until a few years ago, it was widely accepted that men outperformed women on almost all spatial tasks. However, recently some studies [A. Postma, G. Jager, R.P.C. Kessels, H.P.F. Koppeschaar, J. van Honk, Sex differences for selective forms of spatial memory, Brain Cogn. 54 (2004) 24-34; D.H. McBurney, S.J.C. Gaulin, T. Devineni, C. Adams, Superior spatial memory of women: stronger evidence for the gathering hypothesis, Evol. Hum. Behav. 18 (1997) 165-174; Q. Rahman, G.D. Wilson, S. Abrahams, Sexual orientation related differences in spatial memory, J. Int. Neuropsychol. Soc. 9 (2003) 376-383] found sex differences for selective forms of spatial memory and described a female advantage in specific spatial abilities. In this paper, we studied sex differences by testing object locations and route memories with the Corsi Block-Tapping test (CBT), one of the non-verbal tasks most used in clinical settings, and its modified, large-scale version. Our results showed a performance advantage for males in both tests and a more homogeneous pattern of memory in females.
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