Abstract
In four experiments, we examined observers’ ability to locate objects in virtual displays while rotating to new perspectives. In Experiment 1, participants updated the locations of previously seen landmarks in a display while rotating themselves to new views (viewer task) or while rotating the display itself (display task). Updating was faster and more accurate in the viewer task than in the display task. In Experiment 2, we compared updating performance during active and passive self-rotation. Participants rotated themselves in a swivel chair (active task) or were rotated in the chair by the experimenter (passive task). A minimal advantage was found for the active task. In the final experiments, we tested similar manipulations with an asymmetrical display. In Experiment 3, updating during the viewer task was again superior to updating during the display task. In Experiment 4, we found no difference in updating between active and passive self-movement. These results are discussed in terms of differences in sources of extraretinal information available in each movement condition.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Amorim, M., &Stucchi, N. (1997). Viewer- and object-centered mental explorations of an imagined environment are not equivalent.Cognitive Brain Research,5, 229–239.
Berthoz, A., Israël, I., Georges-François, P. G., Grasso, R., &Tsuzuku, T. (1995). Spatial memory of body linear displacement: What is being stored?Science,269, 95–98.
Biederman, I., &Gerhardstein, P. C. (1993). Recognizing depth-rotated objects: Evidence and conditions for three-dimensional viewpoint invariance.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,19, 1162–1182.
Biederman, I., &Gerhardstein, P. C. (1995). Viewpoint-dependent mechanisms in visual object recognition: Reply to Tarr and Bülthoff (1995).Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,21, 1506–1514.
Bridgeman, B. (1986). Multiple sources of outflow in processing spatial information.Acta Psychologica,63, 35–48.
Brookes, G. B., Gresty, M. A., Nakamura, T., &Metcalfe, T. (1993). Sensing and controlling rotational orientation in normal subjects and patients with loss of labyrinthine function.American Journal of Otology,14, 349–351.
Bülthoff, H. H., &Edelman, S. (1992). Psychophysical support for a two-dimensional view interpolation theory of object recognition.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,89, 60–64.
Chance, S. S., Gaunet, F., Beall, A. C., &Loomis, J. M. (1998). Locomotion mode affects the updating of objects encountered during travel: The contribution of vestibular and proprioceptive inputs to path integration.Presence,7, 168–178.
Christou, C. G., &Bülthoff, H. H. (1999). View dependence in scene recognition after active learning.Memory & Cognition,27, 996–1007.
De Vega, M., &Rodrigo, M. J. (2001). Updating spatial layouts mediated by pointing and labelling under physical and imaginary rotation.European Journal of Cognitive Psychology,13, 369–393.
Easton, R. D., &Sholl, M. J. (1995). Object-array structure, frames of reference, and retrieval of spatial knowledge.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,21, 483–500.
Farrell, M. J., &Robertson, I. H. (1998). Mental rotation and the automatic updating of body-centered spatial relationships.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,24, 227–233.
Franklin, N., &Tversky, B. (1990). Searching imagined environments.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,119, 63–76.
Grasso, R., Glasauer, S. P., Georges-François, P., &Israël, I. (1999). Replication of passive whole-body linear displacements from inertial cues: Facts and mechanisms. In B. Cohen & B. J. M. Hess (Eds.),Otolith function in spatial orientation and movement (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 871, pp. 345–366). New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Grön, G., Wunderlich, A. P., Spitzer, M., Tomczak, R., &Riepe, M. W. (2000). Brain activation during human navigation: Genderdifferent neural networks as substrate of performance.Nature Neuroscience,3, 404–408.
Gugerty, L. J. (1997). Situation awareness during driving: Explicit and implicit knowledge in dynamic spatial memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied,3, 42–66.
Halpern, D. G. (1986).Sex differences in cognitive abilities (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hintzman, D. L., O’Dell, C. S., &Arndt, D. R. (1981). Orientation in cognitive maps.Cognitive Psychology,13, 149–206.
Howard, I. (1982).Human visual orientation. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley.
Huttenlocher, J., &Presson, C. C. (1979). The coding and transformation of spatial information.Cognitive Psychology,11, 375–394.
Jordan, K., Wüstenberg, T., Heinze, H.-J., Peters, M., &Jäncke, L. (2002). Women and men exhibit different cortical activation patterns during mental rotation tasks.Neuropsychologia,40, 2397–2408.
Klatzky, R. L., Loomis, J. M., Beall, A. C., Chance, S. S., &Golledge, R. G. (1998). Spatial updating of self-position and orientation during real, imagined, and virtual locomotion.Psychological Science,9, 293–298.
Larish, J. F., &Andersen, G. J. (1995). Active control in interrupted dynamic spatial orientation: The detection of orientation change.Perception & Psychophysics,57, 533–545.
Loomis, J. M., Klatzky, R. L., Golledge, R. G., &Philbeck, J. W. (1999). Human navigation by path integration. In R. G. Golledge (Ed.),Wayfinding behavior: Cognitive mapping and other spatial processes (pp. 125–151). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
McNaughton, B. L., Chen, L. L., &Markus, E. J. (1991). “Dead reckoning,” landmark learning, and the sense of direction: A neurophysiological and computational hypothesis.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,3, 190–202.
Parsons, L. M. (1995). Inability to reason about an object’s orientation using an axis and angle of rotation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,21, 1259–1277.
Pausch, R., Proffitt, D., &Williams, G. (1997). Quantifying immersion in virtual reality. InProceedings of the 24th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (pp. 13–18). New York: ACM Press/Addison-Wesley.
Péruch, P., Vercher, J.-L., &Gauthier, G.-M. (1995). Acquisition of spatial knowledge through visual exploration of simulated environments.Ecological Psychology,7, 1–20.
Presson, C. C. (1982). Strategies in spatial reasoning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,8, 243–251.
Presson, C. C., &Montello, D. R. (1994). Updating after rotation and translational body movements: Coordinate structure of perspective space.Perception,23, 1447–1455.
Riecke, B. E., von der Heyde, M., &Bülthoff, H. H. (2001). How real is virtual reality really? Comparing spatial updating using pointing tasks in real and virtual environments.Journal of Vision,1, 321a.
Rieser, J. J. (1989). Access to knowledge of spatial structure at novel points of observation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,15, 1157–1165.
Rieser, J. J., Garing, A. E., &Young, M. F. (1994). Imagery, action, and young children’s spatial orientation: It’s not being there that counts, it’s what one has in mind.Child Development,65, 1262–1278.
Rieser, J. J., Guth, D. A., &Hill, E. W. (1986). Sensitivity to perspective structure while walking without vision.Perception,15, 173–188.
Samsonovich, A., &McNaughton, B. L. (1997). Path integration and cognitive mapping in a continuous attractor neural network model.Journal of Neuroscience,17, 5900–5920.
Simons, D. J., &Wang, R.W. (1998). Perceiving real-world viewpoint changes.Psychological Science,9, 315–320.
Tarr, M. J. (1995). Rotating objects to recognize them: A case study on the role of viewpoint dependency in the recognition of three-dimensional objects.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,2, 55–82.
Tarr, M. J., &Bülthoff, H. H. (1995). Is human object recognition better described by geon structural descriptions or by multiple views? Comment on Biederman and Gerhardstein (1993).Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,21, 1494–1505.
Tarr, M. J., &Pinker, S. (1989). Mental rotation and orientationdependence in shape recognition.Cognitive Psychology,21, 233–282.
Viaud-Delmon, I., Ivanenko, Y. P., Berthoz, A., &Jouvent, R. (1998). Sex, lies, and virtual reality.Nature Neuroscience,1, 15–16.
von Holst, E., &Mittelstaedt, H. (1950). Das Reafferenzprinzip: Wechselwirkungen zwischen Zentralnervensystem und Peripherie (The reafference principle: Interactions between central nervous system and periphery).Naturwissenschaften,37, 464–476.
Wang, R.W., &Simons, D. J. (1999). Active and passive scene recognition across views.Cognition,70, 191–210.
Wraga, M. (2003). Thinking outside the body: An advantage for spatial updating during imagined versus physical self-rotation.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,29, 993–1005.
Wraga, M., Creem, S. H., &Proffitt, D. R. (2000). Updating displays after imagined object and viewer rotations.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,26, 151–168.
Yardley, L., &Higgins, M. (1998). Spatial updating during rotation: The role of vestibular information and mental activity.Journal of Vestibular Research,8, 435–442.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by NIMH Grants MH11462 and MH52640, NASA Grant NCC2925, and CMU/DARPA Grant 539689-52273.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wraga, M., Creem-Regehr, S.H. & Proffitt, D.R. Spatial updating of virtual displays. Memory & Cognition 32, 399–415 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195834
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195834