Selection of macroreference frames in spatial memory

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2018-01-01
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Kelly, Jonathan
Siegel, Zachary
Sjolund, Lori
Avraamides, Marios
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Kelly, Jonathan
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Psychology
The Department of Psychology may prepare students with a liberal study, or for work in academia or professional education for law or health-services. Graduates will be able to apply the scientific method to human behavior and mental processes, as well as have ample knowledge of psychological theory and method.
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Spatial memories are often hierarchically organized with different regions of space represented in unique clusters within the hierarchy. Each cluster is thought to be organized around its own microreference frame selected during learning, whereas relationships between clusters are organized by a macroreference frame. Two experiments were conducted in order to better understand important characteristics of macroreference frames. Participants learned overlapping spatial layouts of objects within a room-sized environment before performing a perspective-taking task from memory. Of critical importance were between-layout judgments thought to reflect the macroreference frame. The results indicate that (1) macroreference frames characterize overlapping spatial layouts, (2) macroreference frames are used even when microreference frames are aligned with one another, and (3) macroreference frame selection depends on an interaction between the global macroaxis (defined by characteristics of the layout of all learned objects), the relational macroaxis (defined by characteristics of the two layouts being related on a perspective-taking trial), and the learning view. These results refine the current understanding of macroreference frames and document their broad role in spatial memory.

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This is a manuscript of an article published as Kelly, Jonathan W., Zachary D. Siegel, Lori A. Sjolund, and Marios N. Avraamides. "Selection of macroreference frames in spatial memory." Memory & Cognition (2018). The final publication is available at Springer via doi: 10.3758/s13421-018-0836-2. Posted with permission.

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Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2018
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