hide
Free keywords:
-
Abstract:
Recognition of a newly learned environment from both familiar and novel perspectives was investigated using a 3D-computer model in which observers made simulated translational and rotational head movements. They were
encouraged to move around the environment to find and acknowledge spatially localized coded markers. During each acknowledgement the observers' viewing parameters were stored and later used for stimulus generation. The observers' movements were restricted to a small region of the environment and complete rotational head-movements were not allowed. To test the importance of making volitional movements during familiarization, two groups of observers were tested: active-explorers initiated their own movement through the environment while the passive-observers watched a playback of these movements. In the recognition tests, all participants were shown both familiar and novel views
of both acknowledged and unacknowledged locations. Testing took place immediately and was repeated after 7 days. Results indicate that observers always found novel perspective views more difficult to recognize than familiar
views, and surprise locations more difficult than acknowledged locations. The principle difference between active and passive was an advantage in recognizing novel direction views by active-explorers. This difference became
more pronounced over the course of seven days. The results provide evidence for egocentric encoding and suggest that this can be reduced, if only marginally, by facilitating observer self-locomotion during learning.
