Memory for familiar locations: The impact of age, education and cognitive efficiency on two neuropsychological allocentric tasks

Lopez, Antonella; Caffò, Alessandro O.; Bosco, Andrea

doi:10.1177/1073191119831780

Cited by 15 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 86 publications

(129 reference statements)

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“…The items are almost perfectly aligned to the fixed reference point, on the North–South axis. This result is compatible with previous findings of Costa and Bonetti [ 56 ] and Lopez and colleagues [ 44 ] using the Map of Italy and also with Dror and Kosslyn [ 57 ], Saimpont [ 58 ] and De Beni [ 59 ], with regard to the differential access to mental spatial representations of landmark placed in front or behind the intended place of observation (i.e., aligned and counter-aligned landmarks). On the other hand, the elderly showed a slight advantage, with respect to the young, in placing Item#4 and Item#5.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…For the first time, in the present study, binary differential item functioning (DIF) was applied to a spatial mental representation task, based on the schematic sketch map of the participants. LPM task is a hometown map completion test used to assess allocentric topographical disorientation, and to discriminate, in particular, typical from atypical aging [ 25 , 41 , 44 ]. The aim of the present study was to examine individual differences (age and gender-related) and to speculate why some items showed a spread between age or gender groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The participant had to pinpoint all the other eight landmarks, keeping in mind the metric (i.e., relative distances) as well as categorical (relative positions) spatial relations between landmarks (see Figure 2 c). The LPM task is known to be relatively unbiased with respect to age and education, and relatively sensitive in discriminating between different levels of cognitive functioning [ 44 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Landmark Positioning on a Map (LPM, [ 25 ]) is used to assess allocentric remote spatial memory, in which participants had to identify and pinpoint the correct position of eight well-known landmarks of their hometown on a blind map of the city, keeping in mind metric (i.e., relative distances) as well as categorical (“A is above/below and left/right of B”) spatial relationship between landmarks. LPM is intended to be age and education fair, as it did not favor young people compared with aged ones or healthy elderly with high and low level of education [ 44 ]. In the study, the group dependent contribution of a single item to the total score of the test is not known.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Studying Individual Differences in Spatial Cognition Through Differential Item Functioning Analysis

et al. 2020

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Background: In the field of spatial cognition, the study of individual differences represents a typical research topic. Gender and age have been prominently investigated. A promising statistical technique used to identify the different responses to items in relation to different group memberships is the Differential Item Functioning Analysis (DIF). The aim of the present study was to investigate the DIF of the Landmark positioning on a Map (LPM) task, across age groups (young and elderly) and gender, in a sample of 400 healthy human participants. Methods: LPM is a hometown map completion test based on well-known and familiar landmarks used to assess allocentric mental representations. DIF was assessed on LPM items two times: on categorical (i.e., positions) and coordinate (i.e., distances) scores, separately. Results: When positions and distances were difficult to assess with respect to the intended reference point, the probability to endorse the items seemed to get worse for the elderly compared to the younger participants. Instead other features of landmarks (high pleasantness, restorativeness) seemed to improve the elderly performance. A gender-related improvement of probability to endorse distance estimation of some landmarks, favoring women, emerged, probably associated with their repeated experiences with those landmarks. Overall, the complexity of the task seemed to have a differential impact on young and elderly people while gender-oriented activities and places seemed to have a differential impact on men and women. Conclusions: For the first time DIF was applied to a spatial mental representation task, based on the schematic sketch maps of the participants. The application of DIF to the study of individual differences in spatial cognition should become a systematic routine to early detect differential items, improving knowledge, as well as experimental control, on individual differences.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Studying Individual Differences in Spatial Cognition Through Differential Item Functioning Analysis

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“…Moreover, other domains could be introduced, making the predictive model more complete and in order to study potential mediation/moderation effects. For example, it would be useful to investigate the role of cognitive reserve in older adults (Stern, 2002;Caffò et al, 2016) or topographical navigation/mental representation abilities (Bocchi et al, 2019;Lopez et al, 2019) to expand the scope of the investigation of visuospatial components in fitness-to-drive issue. These improvements would further enrich the set of tools for the assessment of driving skills that professionals of mobility centers could employ for comprehensive and highly predictive cognitive screening in drivers throughout their lifetime.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Mental Transformation Skills Discriminate Fitness to Drive in Young and Old Adults

et al. 2020

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Literature on driving research suggests a relationship between cognition and driving performance in older and younger drivers. There is little research on adults and driving, despite them being the largest age cohort behind the wheel. Among the cognitive domains, visuospatial abilities are expected to be highly predictive of driving skills and driving fitness. The relationship between specific spatial mental transformation skills (i.e., object and self-based ones) and driving performance has not yet been examined. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between overall cognitive functioning, self and object-based spatial mental transformation skills, and driving performance in a sample of younger and older adult drivers. Participants were comprised of one hundred younger and 83 older adult Italian drivers. Participants completed a computerized driving test assessing traffic stress resilience, visual and motor reaction time, and the ability to obtain an overview of the traffic scenario (DT, vRT, mRT, and ATAV respectively in the Shufried®-Vienna Test System–DRIVESC). The Mental Rotation Test (MRT) and the Object Perspective Taking Test (OPT) were administered in order to assess object-based and self-based spatial mental transformation skills. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (MoCA) was administered control for global cognitive functioning. The effects of education and gender were also controlled in the analysis. The results of the present study suggested that: (1) The effect of age, favoring younger participants, was found in DT, vRT, mRT, and ATAVT tests. (2) The effect of global cognitive functioning was found in DT and ATAV tests. (3) The effect of the spatial mental transformation tests was found in DT, vRT (MRT only), and ATAVT (OPT only) tests. Taken together, these results suggest the specific contribution of spatial mental transformation skills in the execution of complex behaviors connected to the fitness to drive. Prospectively, the results of the present study relating spatial mental transformation skills and driving processes may be a valuable source of knowledge for researchers dealing with the relationship between cognitive resources and navigation aids.

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Egocentric and allocentric spatial memory in young children: A comparison with young adults

Fernández-Baizán

Árias

Méndez

2021

Infant and Child Development

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The most used frames of reference in spatial memory, which allows us to move through the environment, are the egocentric, related to one's own perspective, and the allocentric, based on environmental cues. Although many tasks have been proposed, those that evaluate the two frames of reference separately and compare adults and children are scarce. Our aim was to assess egocentric and allocentric spatial orientation in young children and young adults, comparing between ages, frames of reference and gender. The Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory tests were used. Adults performed better than children on both tasks. Children performed equally in both frames of reference, but adults were more efficient on the allocentric test. Gender did not seem relevant in the performance of either group. Overall, egocentric and allocentric spatial memory are not fully developed at the age of 7 and children do not master any strategy above the other. Highlights Do school‐aged children reach adults performance in egocentric and allocentric spatial memory? Two experimental tasks, Egocentric and Allocentric Spatial Memory tests, were used for assessment. Significant differences were found between children from 5‐to‐7 years and adults. Egocentric and allocentric frameworks are not fully developed at 7 years. Children may not rely on one specific framework for their orientation.

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Memory for familiar locations: The impact of age, education and cognitive efficiency on two neuropsychological allocentric tasks

Cited by 15 publications

References 86 publications

Studying Individual Differences in Spatial Cognition Through Differential Item Functioning Analysis

Studying Individual Differences in Spatial Cognition Through Differential Item Functioning Analysis

Spatial Mental Transformation Skills Discriminate Fitness to Drive in Young and Old Adults

Egocentric and allocentric spatial memory in young children: A comparison with young adults

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