Abstract
In three experiments, we investigated how retrieval cues affect memory for cognitive maps. Participants first rated a list of landmarks either for the importance of the activity performed or for the frequency of visitation at each landmark (Experiments 1 and 2), or on both dimensions (Experiment 3). Landmarks ranked high and low on these dimensions were selected and served as the bases for distance estimations and route descriptions. Distances estimated using importance as a criterion for selection were significantly longer than those using frequency of visitation as a criterion. Participants in the importance group also produced more route perspective expressions than survey expressions in their descriptions, whereas participants in the frequency group did not differ in the relative use of these types of perspective expressions (Experiment 1). These findings suggest that deviations in distance estimation and the use of perspectives in route description are a result of contextual manipulation and the procedures invoked during judgments.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Allen, G. L., &Kirasic, K. C. (1985). Effects of the cognitive organization of route knowledge on judgments of macrospatial distance.Memory & Cognition,13, 218–227.
Anderson, R. C., &Pichert, J. W. (1978). Recall of previously unrecallable information following a shift in perspective. Journal ofVerbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,17, 1–12.
Burgess, N., Maguire, E. A., &O’Keefe, J. (2002). The human hippocampus and spatial and episodic memory.Neuron,35, 625–641.
Chapman, G. B., &Johnson, E. J. (2002). Incorporating the irrelevant: Anchors in judgments of belief and value. In T. Gilovich, D. Griffin, & D. Kahneman (Eds.),Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgement (pp. 120–138). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, S., &Cohen, R. (1982). Distance estimates of children as a function of type of activity in the environment.Child Development,53, 834–837.
Curiel, J. M., &Radvansky, G. A. (1998). Mental organization of maps.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,24, 202–214.
Decety, J., Jeannerod, M., &Prablanc, C. (1989). The timing of mentally represented actions.Behavioural Brain Research,34, 35–42.
Denis, M. (1997). The description of routes: A cognitive approach to the production of spatial discourse.Current Psychology of Cognition, 16, 409–458.
Downs, R. M., &Stea, D. (1977).Maps in minds: Reflections on cognitive mapping. New York: Harper & Row.
Engel, S. (1999).Context is everything: The nature of memory. New York: Freeman.
Epley, N., &Gilovich, T. (2002). Putting adjustment back in the anchoring and adjustment heuristic. In T. Gilovich, D. Griffin, & D. Kahneman (Eds.),Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgement (pp. 139–149). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Evans, G. W., &Pezdek, K. (1980). Cognitive mapping: Knowledge of real-world distance and location information.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory,6, 13–24.
Gauvain, M., &Rogoff, B. (1986). Influence of the goal on children’s exploration and memory of large-scale space.Developmental Psychology,22, 72–77.
Golledge, R. G., Dougherty, V., &Bell, S. (1995). Acquiring spatial knowledge: Survey versus route-based knowledge in unfamiliar environments.Annals of the Association of American Geographers,85, 134–158.
Golledge, R. G., &Spector, N. A. (1978). Comprehending the urban environment: Theory and practice.Geographical Analysis,14, 305–325.
Holding, C. S. (1992). Clusters of reference points in cognitive representations of the environment.Journal of Environmental Psychology,12, 45–55.
Holyoak, K. J., &Mah, W. A. (1982). Cognitive reference points in judgments of symbolic magnitude.Cognitive Psychology,14, 328–352.
Lawton, C. A. (1994). Gender differences in way-finding strategies: Relationship to spatial ability and spatial anxiety.Sex Roles,30, 765–779.
Leiser, D., Tzelgov, J., &Henik, A. (1987). A comparison of map study methods: Simulated travel vs conventional study.Current Psychology of Cognition,7, 317–334.
Loftus, E. F., &Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: An example of the interaction between language and memory.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,13, 585–589.
Magliano, J. P., Cohen, R., Allen, G. L., &Rodrigue, J. R. (1995). The impact of a wayfinder’s goal on learning a new environment: Different types of spatial knowledge as goals.Journal of Environmental Psychology,15, 65–75.
McKoon, G., Ratcliff, R., &Seifert, C. M. (1989). Making the connection: Generalized knowledge structures in story understanding.Journal of Memory & Language,28, 711–734.
McNamara, T. P., &Diwadkar, V. A. (1997). Symmetry and asymmetry of human spatial memory.Cognitive Psychology,34, 160–190.
Montello, D. R. (1991). The measurement of cognitive distance: Methods and construct validity.Journal of Environmental Psychology,11, 101–122.
Montello, D. R., Lovelace, K. L., Golledge, R. G., &Self, C. M. (1999). Sex-related differences and similarities in geographic and environmental spatial abilities.Annals of the Association of American Geographers,89, 515–534.
Nilsson, L.-G., Law, J., &Tulving, E. (1988). Recognition failure of recallable unique names: Evidence for an empirical law of memory and learning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,14, 266–277.
Perrig, W., &Kintsch, W. (1985). Propositional and situational representations of text.Journal of Memory & Language,24, 503–518.
Sadalla, E. K., Burroughs, W. J., &Staplin, L. J. (1980). Reference points in spatial cognition.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory,6, 516–528.
Sadalla, E. K., Staplin, L. J., &Burroughs, W. J. (1979). Retrieval processes in distance cognition.Memory & Cognition,7, 291–296.
Schacter, D. L., &Tulving, E. (Eds.) (1994).Memory systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Seifert, C. M., McKoon, G., Abelson, R. P., &Ratcliff, R. (1986). Memory connections between thematically similar episodes.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,12, 220–231.
Sholl, M. J. (1987). Cognitive maps as orienting schemata.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,13, 615–628.
Smith, S. M. (1988). Environmental context-dependent memory. In G. M. Davies & D. M. Thomson (Eds.),Memory in context: Context in memory (pp. 13–34). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley.
Taylor, H. A., &Naylor, S. J. (2002). Goal-directed effects on processing a spatial environment: Indications from memory and language. In K. R. Coventry & P. Olivier (Eds.),Spatial language: Cognitive and computational perspectives (pp. 233–253). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Taylor, H. A., Naylor, S. J., &Chechile, N. A. (1999). Goal-specific influences on the representation of spatial perspective.Memory & Cognition,27, 309–319.
Taylor, H. A., &Tversky, B. (1996). Perspective in spatial descriptions.Journal of Memory & Language,35, 371–391.
Thorndyke, P. W., &Hayes-Roth, B. (1982). Differences in spatial knowledge acquired from maps and navigation.Cognitive Psychology,14, 560–589.
Tolman, E. C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men.Psychological Review,55, 189–208.
Tulving, E. (1983).Elements of episodic memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tulving, E., &Thompson, D. M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory.Psychological Review,80, 353–373.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Note-This article was accepted by the previous editorial team, when Colin M. MacLeod was Editor.
Electronic supplementary material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bugmann, D., Coventry, K.R. & Newstead, S.E. Contextual cues and the retrieval of information from cognitive maps. Memory & Cognition 35, 381–392 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193279
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193279