Mental organization of maps.

Abstract

Previous studies deconfounding spatial and temporal proximity during map learning have found a temporal influence on mental map organization. The authors explored whether this observed priming effect reflected the manner in which a map was Learned by having people either name objects or point to them during learning. Naming objects resulted in temporal organization but pointing to objects resulted in spatial organization, suggesting that mental map organization is sensitive to emphasizing different types of map information during learning. The authors also explored whether the temporal organization observed in the naming group was influenced by the ease of using spatial information during learning, such as when the expectancy to use spatial information was made explicit or when a consistent temporal order was absent. When naming map objects, evidence for a spatial organization was weak, whereas a temporal organization was observed when a consistent temporal order was present.Knowledge of how objects are organized in space is necessary to understand the information conveyed by a map. Intuitively, it seems that a map's spatial structure should be reflected in its mental representation. However, theories differ in the extent to which spatial information is incorporated into the mental map. Some researchers have argued that the structure of the memory representation is primarily influenced by spatial information (e.g.,

Prototypes and particulars: Geometric and experience-dependent spatial categories.

“…Thus, when people learn the locations of nearby objects close together in time, they organize these object locations into groups. Although these findings are consistent with the idea that spatial memory is affected by the distribution of locations within a category, it is not clear from these studies whether such distributional effects arise from spatial categorization processes, object categorization processes, or the mapping of "what" information onto "where" information (for a detailed discussion of these issues, see Curiel & Radvansky, 1998).…”

Social influences on spatial memory

“…A. Taylor et al, 1999;Thorndyke & Hayes-Roth, 1982). Cognitive maps are affected by learning goals and methods (Curiel & Radvansky, 1998;H. A. Taylor et al, 1999).…”

The accuracy of spatial information from temporally and spatially organized mental maps

“…Previous research has found that the organization of a mental map reflects how the map was learned (Curiel & Radvansky, 1998). When people learn a map by pointing to objects, a spatial organization is observed.…”

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The way a space is learned can result in a mental map that is either temporally or spatially organized (Curiel & Radvansky, 1998). The present study examined the availability of spatial information under map learning conditions where either temporal or spatial organization has been previously observed.

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“…When these are separated, temporal information can play a prominent role in the structure of a mental map. Curiel and Radvansky (1998) looked at priming when spatial and temporal proximity were deconfounded, varying map learning. For their naming group, a map location was indicated during learning, and the subject provided its name.…”