Veronica Muffato

Map learning and the alignment effect in young and older adults: how do they gain from having a map available while performing pointing tasks?

Abstract Two studies were conducted to investigate age-related differences between young and older adults in the impact of a map being available or not while performing aligned and counter-aligned pointing tasks. In the first study, 19 young adults (aged 20–30) and 19 young–old adults (aged 65–74) studied a map and performed a pointing task. In the second, three groups of adults, 19 of them young (aged 20–30), 19 young–old (aged 65–74), and 19 old–old (aged 75–84), studied a map and performed a pointing task, first with the map available, and then without it. The results of both studies showed that young and older adults’ performance was similar in aligned pointing, while the young performed better than the older adults in counter-aligned pointing. Analyzing the types of error, results showed that older adults made more counter-aligned pointing errors than young adults, both with and without the map. Having the map available improved all participants’ performance, however. Finally, visuo-spatial working memory was found to sustain pointing performance in all age groups and map conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that older adults are specifically susceptible to the alignment effect—making more counter-aligned errors—regardless of whether or not they have a map available while performing pointing tasks.

Environment Learning from Spatial Descriptions: The Role of Perspective and Spatial Abilities in Young and Older Adults

The present study investigated age-related differences between young and older adults deriving mental representations from survey and route descriptions, and the involvement of spatial skills in their representation. A sample of 34 young (aged 20-30), 34 middle-aged (50-60) and 32 older (61-80) adults listened to survey and route descriptions of an environment and their recall was tested with a free recall task, a verification test, and a map drawing task; several spatial measures were also administered. The results showed that: i) middle-aged and older adults performed worse than young adults in all recall tasks; ii) all participants formed a perspective-dependent mental representation after learning a route description, but not after learning a survey description (as shown by the verification test); iii) age and spatial abilities predicted recall performance (in relation to type of task and the perspective learnt). Overall, spatial perspective and spatial skills influence the construction of environment representations in young, middle-aged and older adults.

How directions of route descriptions influence orientation specificity: the contribution of spatial abilities.

Previous studies found mental representations of route descriptions north-up oriented when egocentric experience (given by the protagonist’s initial view) was congruent with the global reference system. This study examines: (a) the development and maintenance of representations derived from descriptions when the egocentric and global reference systems are congruent or incongruent; and (b) how spatial abilities modulate these representations. Sixty participants (in two groups of 30) heard route descriptions of a protagonist’s moves starting from the bottom of a layout and headed mainly northwards (SN description) in one group, and headed south from the top (NS description, the egocentric view facing in the opposite direction to the canonical north) in the other. Description recall was tested with map drawing (after hearing the description a first and second time; i.e. Time 1 and 2) and South-North (SN) or North–South (NS) pointing tasks; and spatial objective tasks were administered. The results showed that: (a) the drawings were more rotated in NS than in SN descriptions, and performed better at Time 2 than at Time 1 for both types of description; SN pointing was more accurate than NS pointing for the SN description, while SN and NS pointing accuracy did not differ for the NS description; (b) spatial (rotation) abilities were related to recall accuracy for both types of description, but were more so for the NS ones. Overall, our results showed that the way in which spatial information is conveyed (with/without congruence between the egocentric and global reference systems) and spatial abilities influence the development and maintenance of mental representations.

Age-related differences in pointing accuracy in familiar and unfamiliar environments.

Abstract This study aimed to investigate age-related differences in spatial mental representations of familiar and unfamiliar places. Nineteen young adults (aged 18–23) and 19 older adults (aged 60–74), all living in the same Italian town, completed a set of visuospatial measures and then pointed in the direction of familiar landmarks in their town and in the direction of landmarks in an unknown environment studied on a map. Results showed that older adults were less accurate in the visuospatial tasks and in pointing at landmarks in an unfamiliar environment, but performed as well as the young adults when pointing to familiar places. Pointing performance correlated with visuospatial tests accuracy in both familiar and unfamiliar environments, while only pointing in an unknown environment correlated with visuospatial working memory (VSWM). The spatial representation of well-known places seems to be well preserved in older adults (just as well as in young adults), while it declines for unfamiliar environments. Spatial abilities sustain the mental representations of both familiar and unfamiliar environments, while the support of VSWM resources is only needed for the latter.

When Environmental Information Is Conveyed Using Descriptions: The Role of Perspectives and Strategies

Verbally-conveyed spatial information can typically adopt a survey or a route perspective (i.e. a map view or a personal point of view, respectively). This paper examines the role of spontaneous strategy use in learning from survey and route descriptions (Study 1), and the effect of practicing with route and survey strategies on route description learning (Study 2). In Study 1, participants listened to route or survey spatial descriptions. In Study 2, three groups listened to route description before and after practicing with the use of a survey strategy, a route strategy, or without practicing with any strategy (Survey practice, Route practice, Control groups respectively). In both studies, after listening to each description, participants reported on their strategy use and answered true/false survey and route questions. The results of Study 1 showed a greater accuracy for descriptions conveyed from the same perspective as the one learnt, and survey descriptions elicited a greater use of survey strategies. The results of Study 2 showed that the group which had practiced with a survey strategy were more accurate for survey descriptions, and reported a greater use of the survey strategy than other strategies, or than the other groups. The results are discussed to expand on the spatial cognition framework and its implications.

Map Learning in Normal Aging: The Role of Individual Visuo-Spatial Abilities and Implications

OBJECTIVE The present study analyzes the age-related differences in map learning between young and normally-aging young-old and old-old adults in relation to individual visuo-spatial factors to specify which aspects of spatial learning are susceptible to aging. METHODS Forty young, 40 young-old and 40 old-old participants performed a series of tasks to assess their visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) and visuo-spatial (rotation) abilities, then they studied a map. To test their recall, they graphically reproduced the map in a freehand drawing, then performed a sketch map task (which involved placing a list of landmarks on a blank layout of the map) and a pointing task (adopting aligned and counter-aligned imaginary positions). RESULTS The results showed that age-related differences depend on the type of recall task performed: in the pointing and freehand map-drawing tasks, the young-old and old-old performed worse than the young adults; but in the sketch map task, the young-old performed as well as the young adults and only the old-olds performance was worse than that of the other two age groups. Concerning the role of individual factors, VSWM and rotation abilities were found strongly involved in the pointing task (especially for counter-aligned pointing) and the freehand map-drawing task. CONCLUSION Overall, these results suggest that different factors related to spatial (map) learning explain age-related differences in normal aging. The implications of the present results in normal and pathological aging, and for the purposes of clinical assessments and interventions, are discussed.

Spatial mental representations: the influence of age on route learning from maps and navigation

Experiencing an environment by navigating in it or reading a map (route and survey views, respectively) is a typical activity of everyday life. Previous research has demonstrated that aging coincides with a decline in spatial learning, but it is unclear whether this depends to some degree on how the learning conditions relate to the method used to assess the recall. The present study aims to shed light on this issue. Forty-six young, 43 young-old and 38 old-old adults learned outdoor environments from a map and a video, then performed sketch map and route repetition tasks. Participants were assessed on their visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM), and reported their self-assessed visuo-spatial inclinations. The results showed that young adults completed the sketch maps more accurately after learning from a map rather than a video. The same was true of the young-old participants (but not of the old-old), though their performance was not as good as the younger group’s. The learning condition had no effect on the route repetition task, however, and only age-related differences emerged, with both older groups performing less well than the young adults. After controlling for learning condition and age group, VSWM and participants’ reported propensity to explore places predicted their accuracy in both types of spatial task. The overall results, discussed in the light of spatial cognitive and aging models, show that learning condition (combined with recall tasks) and visuo-spatial factors influence spatial representations, even in aging.

Route Learning from Maps or Navigation in Aging: The Role of Visuo-Spatial Abilities and Self-assessed Visuo-Spatial Inclinations

It is well known that older adults have an impaired spatial performance than young; but the role of age and visuo-spatial factors in learning a route from a map or navigation has not been investigating throughout yet. After performing visuo-spatial tasks and questionnaires, young, young-old and old-old adults learned a map and a video and then performed map drawing and route repetition tasks. Age, visuo-spatial abilities and self-assessed visuo-spatial inclinations combine together to influence route learning.

Interventi di potenziamento del ben-essere psicologico nell’invecchiamento

In letteratura crescenti evidenze mostrano come sia possibile potenziare il Benessere psicologico attraverso interventi che, nati in seno alla Psicologia Positiva, vadano a focalizzarsi su aspetti ad esso associati quali la soddisfazione di vita, il flourishing, la resilienza e l’autoefficacia. Alcune evidenze riportano inoltre che i) l’efficacia di tali interventi sia relata all’eta, suggerendo quindi che essi possano costituire un approccio di intervento preferenziale nell’invecchiamento; ii) pur non essendo focalizzati sul disagio, possano essere efficaci anche nel caso di individui con elevati livelli di ansia o tono dell’umore deflesso, favorendo l’affettivita positiva e lo sviluppo di adeguate competenze emotive e di coping. Gli obiettivi del seguente lavoro sono: 1) verificare l’efficacia del training Lab.I Empowerment Emotivo-Motivazionale, rivolto ad individui anziani, confrontando un gruppo sperimentale, sottoposto all’intervento di potenziamento, con un gruppo di controllo attivo (studio 1). 2) Verificare l’efficacia dell’intervento in individui che si differenziano, prima dello stesso, per livello di Benessere Psicologico esperito (bassi e alti livelli alla baseline; studio 2). Infine vengono valutati gli effetti di generalizzazione dell’intervento ad una prova di Memoria di Lavoro. I risultati del primo studio mostrano, per effetto del training LAB.I, un aumento significativo nel livello di Benessere complessivo e specifico di alcune sue componenti cosi come una generalizzazione dei benefici sia alla Qualita di vita, misurata con il WHOQOL che ad un compito di Memoria di Lavoro. Nel secondo studio si evidenzia come a beneficiare dell’intervento e della sua generalizzazione ad una prova di Memoria di Lavoro siano soprattutto gli individui con basso livello di Benessere percepito alla baseline.