Active and passive contributions to spatial learning

Abstract

It seems intuitively obvious that active exploration of a new environment will lead to better spatial learning than will passive exposure. However, the literature on this issue is decidedly mixed-in part, because the concept itself is not well defined. We identify five potential components of active spatial learning and review the evidence regarding their role in the acquisition of landmark, route, and survey knowledge. We find that (1) idiothetic information in walking contributes to metric survey knowledge, (2) there is little evidence as yet that decision making during exploration contributes to route or survey knowledge, (3) attention to place-action associations and relevant spatial relations contributes to route and survey knowledge, although landmarks and boundaries appear to be learned without effort, (4) route and survey information are differentially encoded in subunits of working memory, and (5) there is preliminary evidence that mental manipulation of such properties facilitates spatial learning. Idiothetic information appears to be necessary to reveal the influence of attention and, possibly, decision making in survey learning, which may explain the mixed results in desktop virtual reality. Thus, there is indeed an active advantage in spatial learning, which manifests itself in the task-dependent acquisition of route and survey knowledge.

Integrating actions into object location memory: A benefit for active versus passive reaching movements

“…This finding adds to a larger literature on the advantage of active exploration for large-scale spatial memory of the environment [8,19]. Specifically, the current findings reveal a similar advantage for the representation of peripersonal, reachable space, showing that active interaction with objects in the workspace produces a stronger memory for object locations than passive interaction.…”

“…Such active interaction with objects is known to convey an advantage over passive viewing for the recognition of object identity [2,3] and a benefit of active over passive movement for spatial memory has been demonstrated in animals [4], adult humans [5], and children [6]. An advantage of active over passive exploration for spatial memory of extrapersonal space-which often involves learning the locations of objects (i.e., landmarks) to facilitate spatial memory [7]-has been demonstrated for spatial navigation, path integration, and wayfinding ( [7,20,21]; see [8] for a recent review). In addition, the ability to reproduce pointing movements or arm postures is better these movements or postures are experienced actively rather than passively [9,10].…”

“…In the passive condition used in many previous studies, both motor commands and proprioception information are removed (e.g., participant are moved about the environment in a wheelchair) and therefore the relative contributions of these factors are difficult to uncover [8]. In the current study, proprioceptive differences between active and passive http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.11.043 0166-4328/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.…”

What Have We Learned About Learning? Reflections from Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience

“…This result accords with other studies of active versus passive adult learning within spatial environments (Péruch, Vercher, & Gauthier, 1995). Active and passive learning may differ with respect to the relative contributions of visual and proprioceptive feedback, attention, decision-making, and cognitive manipulation (Chrastil & Warren, 2012). The mechanisms facilitating adult visuospatial learning involve an active, volitional process called "spontaneous revisitation," entailing the active rescanning of items immediately after they have been viewed (Voss et al, 2011).…”

Virtual Distance Estimation in a CAVE

“…When constructing the spatial model of a scene, the visual cues above are integrated with proprioceptive, efferent [22], and possibly vestibular information from movements [2]. Some researchers have implicated effort, as well as the capacity and intention to interact [24], in distance perception.…”