Fiorella Giusberti

Predicting cognitive styles from spatial abilities.

Previous studies on spatial memory reveal that people represent spatial information in 3 different forms: landmark, route, and survey. The aim of this work was to assess spatial abilities in order to predict a persons cognitive style. In order to do this we used 9 different spatial tasks, which were linked with these 3 forms of spatial representations. We found that the 9 spatial tasks are able to distinguish different levels of spatial ability.

Cognitive styles: errors in directional judgments.

Previous studies on spatial memory have shown that, in judging direction, participants are more accurate and faster when a map is aligned with the perspective of the spatial layout they had learned (alignment effect). Rossano and Warren (1989 Perception 18 215–229) have shown that when participants have to do a contra-aligned judgment they can either answer correctly, or make alignment or mirror-image errors. We think that the kind of response depends on the different way in which people acquire environmental knowledge: landmark, route, and survey. We hypothesise that landmark and route participants show alignment effects and make, respectively, alignment errors and mirror-image errors, whereas survey participants do not show an alignment effect. An experiment is reported in which participants performed three tasks in order to distinguish their cognitive style. We selected thirty landmark, thirty route, and twenty-eight survey participants. They were then submitted to directional judgment tasks to verify whether the alignment effect was present and to observe the kind of responses. The results revealed that survey participants did not show an alignment effect, and that the kind of errors could depend on the directional judgment task participants had to do, and not only on the cognitive style.

Alignment effect: primary-secondary learning and cognitive styles.

The degree to which the way of learning spatial information (primary/secondary learning) and spatial cognitive style (landmark/route/survey) affect orientation specificity (alignment effect) is studied. We think that the most important factor explaining the absence of the alignment effect is the spatial cognitive style. We hypothesise that while landmark participants show an alignment effect after both primary and secondary learning, route participants show this effect only after secondary learning, and survey participants do not show it at all. Participants performed three tasks in order to distinguish their cognitive style; they were then randomly assigned to primary or secondary learning and submitted to directional judgment tasks to verify whether the alignment effect was present. The results confirm our hypothesis.

Metric properties of spatial images generated from locomotion: The effect of absolute size on mental scanning

The mental scanning paradigm has demonstrated that the time taken to scan the mental visual image of a map is linearly related to the scanned distances. The experiments reported here aimed at exploring the influence of two factors on mental scanning: (1) the modality through which the environment is explored, that is visual locomotion; and (2) the size of the environment. Three groups of participants had to study three paths of different sizes: large, intermediate and small. After walking on the paths, participants had to mentally scan them. In Experiment 1 an effect of the absolute size was found, which was due to the participants who took longer and relied on a kinaesthetic strategy to study the path. Experiment 2 was a repetition of the first but the duration of the learning time was controlled. A significant difference between size conditions due to longer scanning times for the larger configuration was found. Experiment 3 compared two learning strategies: visual and kinaesthetic. Also in this case a significant size effect due to longer latencies for scanning over the larger configuration was found. In all experiments a significant effect of distance and the typical time–distance coefficients of mental scanning were also found. Results suggest that the learning time duration and the spatial kinaesthetic strategy are both important for encoding the actual size of the environment.

Chapter 20 The study of vividness of images

Publisher Summary This chapter summarizes some studies that have carried out on vividness of images. In a first series of experiments, variables that may affect vividness ratings were examined. In a second series, the vividness rating procedure was used to contrast different conditions and groups of subjects. By focusing on vividness qualities of images, the chapter aims to suggest that the study of the structural properties of mental images is no less important than the study of their functional properties. To examine the effects on the vividness ratings of groups of different imagery ability, the IDQ imagery test was administered to 88 University students. The main result concerning vividness found in this series of experiments was that all of the six identified characteristics contributed in some way to the vividness of an image. The second series of experiments illustrates how the consideration of the different vividness properties of the images may help in studying critical problems concerning visual imagery.

Object localisation and frames of reference

In this paper, we explore which spatial frames of reference, egocentric or allocentric, are used to locate objects either in relation to ourselves (i.e. subject-to-object localisation) or to other objects (i.e. object-to-object localisation). In particular, we wanted to know whether the same or different frames of reference are used in these two different kinds of localisation after learning the environment in an egocentric way. Egocentric frames of reference are determined by the position of the person in relation to the spatial layout, whereas allocentric frames of reference are centred on the environment or on objects, independent of a person’s position. We hypothesised that subject-to-object localisation is based on egocentric spatial representations, whereas object-to-object localisation is based on allocentric spatial representations. Participants were asked to study eight common objects, placed in a circle. Next, half of the participants had to point to an object in relation to their imagined position (egocentric condition) and the other half to an object in relation to another object (allocentric condition). The overall results show no difference between subject-to-object and object-to-object localisation. In both cases, access to positions corresponding to the front/back body axis was facilitated, in terms of both latency and error. Moreover, participants were able to retrieve objects’ positions better from the perspective from which they had learned the spatial array than from new perspectives. These results support the conclusion that egocentric coordinates, which are selected on the basis of our body-centred experience of the environment, define spatial representations underlying both subject-to-object and object-to-object localisation.

Visuo-spatial ability and wayfinding performance in real-world

Keywords Wayfinding x Visuo-spatial ability x Individual differences Background In literature, there are not many studies which have investigated the relation between visuo-spatial ability and wayfinding in real world. In general, these works could be classified into two types: self-assessment studies, in which researchers ask people about their wayfinding ability, their type of navigation strategies or their daily spatial behaviour, in particular their awareness of orientation and their memory for usual spatial behaviour (e.g. Kato and Takeuchi 2003, Prestopnik and Roskos-Ewoldsen 2000); and behavioural studies, in which researchers ask a person to solve visuo-spatial tasks and perform wayfinding tasks. Our work uses this type of investigation method. The few studies presented in literature have shown mixed results. For example, Rovine and Weisman (1989) examined the relation between visuo-spatial ability, measured by spatial relation test and embedded figure test and wayfinding. They did not find any correlation between spatial relation test and wayfinding performance while embedded figure test scores were significantly correlated to wayfinding measures. To date, Blajenkova et al. (2005) have showed that individual differences in visuo-spatial ability, measured by a mental rotation test, resulted in differences in way-finding performance. In general, there is little agreement in literature on the role plays from visuo-spatial ability to improve wayfinding performance. From our point of view, these results are biased by considering the visuo-spatial ability as a unique instead of a multi-component ability (Giusberti and Nori 1999). In particular, experiments that investigated spatial ability are concentrated on the

Perceptual Illusions in Imagery

A mental image is in many ways analogous to a percept but it is not completely identical to it. In some respects, visual perception and visual imagery work in different ways. One area which is worth examining with regard to similarities and asymmetries between perception and imagery is the initial phases of visual information processing. The literature includes some references to the equivalence of imagery and perception in optical illusions, but data are contradictory. In our view, a mental image should not be particularly sensitive to variables which are critical in producing an optical illusion, i.e., variables affecting the early phases of information processing and field global effects. Our hypothesis is that an optical illusion will be present in a perception condition but not in an equivalent imagery condition. To test this, we carried out two experiments using the Ebbinghaus illusion and the Ponzo illusion. The results confirmed our hypothesis, demonstrating that there are indeed asymmetries betwe...

Metric Aspects of Mental Images

This research concerns the representation of size and shape in long-term memory at different levels of abstraction. Some authors suggested a distinction between surface characteristics, including size, depending on an observers point of view (viewer-centered), and abstract characteristic based only on an objects shape (object-centered). These studies raise the question of whether size-information is stored in long-term memory. This question may be dealt with by considering the topic of cognitive costs; since abstract representation needs more processing, more time is required to store fewer abstract representations than many viewer-level representations. Two hypotheses were put forward: information about size is preserved when an intermediate time is allowed to process visual stimuli, whereas it is discarded when a longer time is available; subjects who have longer time focus on shape, while subjects who have less time do not. Subjects were assigned to two groups differing in the time allowed to learn visual images. Both groups had to recognize previously learned visual mental images. These images were built up by a subtraction task. The testing stimuli were identical to learned ones, of a different size, or of a different shape. Analysis showed that information about size is not held in long-term memory. As regards shape, results were controversial.

The influence of high autistic personality traits on the attribution of intentionality in typically developing individuals

ABSTRACT The present study investigated the association between autistic personality traits and cognitive and affective Theory of Mind abilities, as well as whether intentionality attribution was atypical in individuals with autistic personality traits, such as in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, who tend to over-attribute intentions when facing accidental harm involving negative outcomes. One-hundred individuals performed tasks assessing autistic personality traits, Theory of Mind abilities, and provided intentionality judgments to scenarios characterized by side effects, which involved unintended negative outcomes as well. Results showed that autistic personality traits are associated with reduced cognitive and affective Theory of Mind abilities, as well as with increased intentionality attributions towards side effects. Reduced cognitive Theory of Mind ability mediates the relationship between autistic personality traits and over-attribution of intentionality, suggesting that individuals with autistic personality traits base their intentionality evaluations more on side effects than on agent’s intentions, as in autism spectrum disorder.