Francesca Pazzaglia

Spatial discourse and navigation: an analysis of route directions in the city of Venice

We report four studies in which we investigated the production of spatial discourse designed to help people move around in unfamiliar environments. In Study 1, descriptions of three routes were collected from residents of the city of Venice. Analysis of the descriptions revealed the variety of ways used to describe each route. Typical features of route directions were found, in particular the uneven distribution of the landmarks mentioned, which tended to concentrate at critical points where an orientation problem had to be solved. Study 2 used individual protocols to construct more abstract (‘skeletal’) descriptions, reflecting the essentials needed for navigation. New subjects selected those units of information they judged necessary and sufficient to guide a person travelling along the routes. The contents of the skeletal descriptions were very similar, whether they were established by people familiar with Venice or complete strangers, suggesting that people can judge the relevance of information in route directions, regardless of their knowledge of the environment described. Study 3 showed that the ratings of the communicative value of the original individual protocols also resulted in very similar responses from familiar and unfamiliar judges. Finally, Study 4 assessed the value of individual descriptions for assisting navigation by testing the navigational performance elicited by these descriptions. Subjects unfamiliar with the city of Venice were given skeletal descriptions or descriptions which had been rated ‘good’ or ‘poor’ in the previous study. Navigation with good descriptions gave significantly lower error scores than navigation with poor descriptions, and skeletal descriptions gave scores similar to those of good descriptions. Poor descriptions also resulted in more errors from subjects who tended to use a survey perspective than from subjects expressing a preference for visual memories of landmarks. We suggest that the efficiency of route directions as navigational aids depends not only on their intrinsic characteristics but also on the mode of processing adopted by the users. Copyright

Working memory and updating processes in reading comprehension

In this study, we examine the relation between reading comprehension ability and success in working memory updating tasks. Groups of poor and good comprehenders, matched for logical reasoning ability, but different in reading comprehension ability, were administered various updating tasks in a series of experiments. In the first experiment, the participants were presented with lists of words, the length of which (4–10 words) was unknown beforehand, and were required to remember the last 4 words in each series. In this task, we found a decrease in performance that was related to longer series and poor reading ability. In the second experiment, we presented lists of nouns referring to items of different sizes, in a task that simulated the selection and updating of relevant information that occurs in the on-line comprehension process. The participants were required to remember a limited, predefined number of the smallest items presented. We found that poor comprehenders not only had a poorer memory, but also made a greater number of intrusion errors. In the third and fourth experiments, memory load (number of items to be selected) and suppression request (number of potentially relevant items) were manipulated within subjects. Increases in both memory load and suppression requests impaired performance. Furthermore, we found that poor comprehenders produced a greater number of intrusion errors, particularly when the suppression request was increased. Finally, in a fifth experiment, a request to specify the size of presented items was introduced. Poor comprehenders were able to select the appropriate items, although their recall was poorer. Altogether, the data show that working memory abilities, based on selecting and updating relevant information and avoiding intrusion errors, are related to reading comprehension.

Strategies of processing spatial information in survey and landmark-centred individuals

This study investigated differences between individuals with survey and landmark-centred spatial representations in different visuo-spatial tasks and in two way-finding tasks. The Mental Rotation Test (MRT; Vanderberg & Kuse, 1978), and the Minnesota Paper Form Board Test (MPFB; Likert & Quasha, 1941) were administered to two groups of high-survey and landmark-centred undergraduate students. The groups also performed two way-finding tasks where they were required to study the route they were going to take, in one case with a map and in the other with a verbal description. Differences between the two groups emerged; high-survey individuals performed the MRT better than the landmark-centred ones. In the way-finding task an interaction, instruction by group, was found, supporting the idea that the two groups are influenced differently by the format (map or verbal description) of instructions. The landmark-centred group made fewer errors than the high-survey group with the verbal descriptions.

Visuospatial working memory and mental representation of spatial descriptions

The purpose of the present research is to investigate whether different components of working memory (WM) are involved in processing spatial and nonspatial texts. The interference effects of two concurrent tasks on comprehension and recall of two kinds of text were investigated in two experiments. Each participant listened to a spatial and a nonspatial text, with one of two concurrent tasks: articulatory suppression or spatial tapping. The dependent variables in Experiment 1 were accuracy of recall and verification of information inferred from the texts. In Experiment 2 response times in the verification task were also considered. Results support the hypothesis that verbal and spatial components of working memory are differentially involved in the comprehension and memory of spatial and nonspatial texts, with a selective interference effect of the spatial concurrent task on the spatial text and an interference effect of the verbal concurrent task on both the spatial and nonspatial texts. These effects emerged for recall, sentence verification, and response times. Our findings confirm previous results showing that the verbal component of working memory is involved in the process of text comprehension and memory. In addition, they show that visuospatial working memory is involved, in so far as the text conveys visuospatial information.

Evidence for different components in children's visuospatial working memory

There are a large number of studies demonstrating that visuospatial working memory (VSWM) involves different subcomponents, but there is no agreement on the identity of these dimensions. The present study attempts to combine different theoretical accounts by measuring VSWM. A battery composed of 13 tests was used to assess working memory and, in particular, the hypothesized mechanisms involved in the tasks, that is, active processing and passive recall of visual versus sequential-spatial versus simultaneous-spatial versus verbal tasks. The battery consisted of a number of tests already used in previous studies and new tests developed to examine specific components of working memory. We analysed the psychometric characteristics of the tests, the correlations amongst measured variables and estimated the measured variables with structural equation modelling in children attending third and fourth grades. Results revealed that the best model was composed of a specific verbal factor, three visuospatial passive factors (sequential-spatial, simultaneous-spatial, and visual) and one visuospatial active factor.

Are People with High and Low Mental Rotation Abilities Differently Susceptible to the Alignment Effect

We investigated whether the alignment effect (Levine et al, 1982 Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 111 157–175) is influenced by mental rotation abilities. In two experiments, groups of undergraduate students with high and low performance in mental rotation tasks were required to study either schematic (experiment 1) or more complex (experiment 2) maps, and to perform a number of pointing tasks adopting a perspective which could be aligned, misaligned (45°, 135°), or counteraligned (180°) with the perspective assumed during learning. Cognitive styles in spatial representation have also been considered. Results of experiment 1 show that people with low performance in mental rotation tasks prefer to adopt a representation of space focused more on landmarks. Their performance in the pointing tasks depends on the alignment conditions, with more errors in the counteraligned condition followed by the two misaligned and aligned ones. In contrast to this, high-ability mental rotators prefer survey and route spatial representations and are affected only by the aligned and non-aligned conditions. In the second experiment, practice was studied as a function of mental rotation and alignment. The group high in mental rotation ability was found to be free from the alignment effect in the pointing tasks performed after the final of four learning phases.

Learning to read: Evidence on the distinction between decoding and comprehension skills

The paper focuses on the importance of distinguishing between decoding and comprehension skills in reading. This distinction can also be applied to the study of precursors of reading and of the first phases of reading acquisition. The reconsideration of a 15-year research program shows evidence and implications of such a dissociation. In particular, the paper reviews psychometric research concerning reading performance in first and second grade, research on precursors of reading, the effects of early programs devoted to develop reading abilities. Decoding and comprehension reading components appear at least partially separated, related to different underlying cognitive abilities, differently sensitive to enrichment programs.

The generation and maintenance of visual mental images: Evidence from image type and aging

Imagery is a multi-componential process involving different mental operations. This paper addresses whether separate processes underlie the generation, maintenance and transformation of mental images or whether these cognitive processes rely on the same mental functions. We also examine the influence of age on these mental operations for independence of components. In Experiment 1, younger (22 years) and older (69 years) adults generated and maintained general, specific, contextual and autobiographical visual mental images evoked in response to concrete nouns. The older adults had longer generation times, but there was no difference between the two groups on maintenance. Both groups had shortest generation and maintenance times for general images, whereas only the older adults took longest in generating autobiographical images. In Experiment 2, the total maintenance time and number of transformations for each type of image were compared in another group of younger and older adults. General images were less transformed and more subject to decay for both groups. The older people maintained the autobiographical mental images for longest compared to other image types. In conclusion, image generation, maintenance and transformation seem to be differently affected by type of image and aging, supporting a model of their cognitive segregation.

Perspective, Instruction, and Cognitive Style in Spatial Representation of a Virtual Environment

ABSTRACT An environment can be experienced by moving around in it, inspecting it from above, studying a map, or listening to a verbal description. How does learning from different spatial perspectives together with instructions to focus on particular aspects of an environment, affect ones cognitive map? Fifty-four undergraduates (30 females, 24 males) learned a route through an urban virtual environment from either a map (survey perspective) or from virtual navigation (route perspective), with instructions to focus either on landmarks or on intersections. The survey group learned the environment by watching a dot moving through a map, whereas the route group learned by watching a virtual person walking through the virtual environment. While learning, participants were stopped at critical points and instructions focused their attention on either landmarks or intersections. After learning, all participants performed several spatial tasks: navigation, map drawing, and pointing. Individual differences in the cognitive style of spatial representation were assessed. Results showed that spatial perspective and individual differences in spatial representations interacted to affect performance.

Cognitive styles and mental rotation ability in map learning

In inspecting, learning and reproducing a map, a wide range of abilities is potentially involved. This study examined the role of mental rotation (MR) and verbal ability, together with that of cognitive styles in map learning. As regards cognitive styles, the traditional distinction between verbalizers and visualizers has been taken into account, together with a more recent distinction between two styles of visualization: spatial and object. One hundred and seven participants filled in two questionnaires on cognitive styles: the Verbalizer–Visualizer Questionnaire (Richardson in J Ment Imag 1:109–125, 1977) and the Object-Spatial Imagery Questionnaire (Blajenkova et al. in Appl Cogn Psych 20:239–263, 2006), performed MR and verbal tests, learned two maps, and were then tested for their recall. It was found that MR ability and cognitive styles played a role in predicting map learning, with some distinctions within cognitive styles: verbal style favoured learning of one of the two maps (the one rich in verbal labels), which in turn was disadvantaged by the adoption of spatial style. Conversely, spatial style predicted learning of the other map, rich in visual features. The discussion focuses on implications for cognitive psychology and everyday cognition.