The orientation of young and older adults' mental representations of their home town with familiar and new landmarks

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5268823
AutoresVeronica Muffato (0000-0003-2696-4871, Department of General Psychology University of Padova Italy, autor correspondente), Chiara Meneghetti (0000-0002-1838-7958, Department of General Psychology University of Padova Italy), Silvia Doria (Department of General Psychology University of Padova Italy), Rossana De Beni (Department of General Psychology University of Padova Italy)
Ano2020
Volume111
Fascículo4
Páginas762-781
Data de publicação2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoBritish Journal of Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0007-1269 • E-ISSN: 2044-8295
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/bjop.12432
PMID31737912
OpenAlexW2989434041
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas56

Familiarity with an environment produces refined mental representations in adults of all ages, but it is not clear whether these representations tend to have a north-up orientation and whether familiarity facilitates the learning of new spatial information, especially in ageing. Thirty-two young and 32 older adults studied a map of their home town that included familiar and new fictitious landmarks, then performed pointing tasks, some aligned with the cardinal points south-north (SN), and others counter-aligned, north-south (NS). A measure of visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) and a questionnaire on pleasure in exploring were also administered. The results showed that performance was better when pointing SN than NS (alignment effect), whereas pointing performance for familiar landmarks was similar for SN and NS alignments (no alignment effect). No interaction involving age was found. VSWM emerged as a significant predictor of pointing performance. Spatial mental representations of familiar environments are elaborate and flexible as regards familiar landmarks, in both young and older adults; and a familiar layout does not seem to enhance older adults' spatial memory as regards new landmarks

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Geometry · Mental representation · Orientation (vector space) · Pleasure · Spatial memory · Working memory · Augmented Reality Applications · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Psychology · Spatial Cognition and Navigation