Psychological Research

, Volume 79, Issue 4, pp 687–697 | Cite as

Age-related effects on spatial memory across viewpoint changes relative to different reference frames

  • Maria Montefinese
  • Valentina Sulpizio
  • Gaspare Galati
  • Giorgia Committeri
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Remembering object positions across different views is a fundamental competence for acting and moving appropriately in a large-scale space. Behavioural and neurological changes in elderly subjects suggest that the spatial representations of the environment might decline compared to young participants. However, no data are available on the use of different reference frames within topographical space in aging. Here we investigated the use of allocentric and egocentric frames in aging, by asking young and older participants to encode the location of a target in a virtual room relative either to stable features of the room (allocentric environment-based frame), or to an unstable objects set (allocentric objects-based frame), or to the viewer’s viewpoint (egocentric frame). After a viewpoint change of 0° (absent), 45° (small) or 135° (large), participants judged whether the target was in the same spatial position as before relative to one of the three frames. Results revealed a different susceptibility to viewpoint changes in older than young participants. Importantly, we detected a worst performance, in terms of reaction times, for older than young participants in the allocentric frames. The deficit was more marked for the environment-based frame, for which a lower sensitivity was revealed as well as a worst performance even when no viewpoint change occurred. Our data provide new evidence of a greater vulnerability of the allocentric, in particular environment-based, spatial coding with aging, in line with the retrogenesis theory according to which cognitive changes in aging reverse the sequence of acquisition in mental development.

Keywords

Young Participant Spatial Frame Viewpoint Change Egocentric Frame Object Frame 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The work was supported by University G. d’Annunzio grants to GC and by grants from Italian Ministry 1071 of Health – Fondazione Santa Lucia (RC2008-2009) to GG.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Maria Montefinese
    • 1
    • 2
  • Valentina Sulpizio
    • 3
  • Gaspare Galati
    • 3
    • 4
  • Giorgia Committeri
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.Laboratory of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical SciencesUniversity G. d’AnnunzioChietiItaly
  2. 2.Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies - ITABFoundation G. d’AnnunzioChietiItaly
  3. 3.Laboratory of NeuropsychologyFondazione Santa Lucia IRCCSRomeItaly
  4. 4.Brain Imaging Laboratory, Department of PsychologySapienza UniversityRomeItaly

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