First-perspective alignment effects in a computer-simulated environment

In Experiment 1, participants explored two desktop, virtual environments (VEs), each comprising three city streets connected at right angles; for each participant one VE was open and one was enclosed. Following the first VE exploration, orientation estimates to remembered test locations were most accurate when participants imagined themselves aligned, rather than 90° misaligned or 180° or contra-aligned, with the first part of the route. In the second VE, the effect was attenuated and the data pattern conformed to that anticipated from an orientation-free memory. Experiment 2 followed the procedure of Experiment 1, but omitted the alignment tests after the first VE; following the second VE exploration, orientation estimates presented a similar pattern to those in first test of Experiment 1. These data are discussed in terms of cognitive load

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Geometry · Memory test · Orientation (vector space) · Perspective (graphical) · Test (biology) · Artificial Intelligence · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Psychology · Spatial Cognition and Navigation · Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes

• Adoption of an internal viewpoint following presentations of plan‐view diagrams and maps

  Open Access•Ali Drummond, Aaron Drummond et al.•British Journal of Psychology•2010

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