1. Spatial integration of boundaries in a 3D virtual environment
- Author
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Bouchekioua, Youcef, Miller, Holly C, Craddock, Paul, Blaisdell, Aaron P, and Molet, Mikael
- Subjects
Biological Psychology ,Psychology ,Basic Behavioral and Social Science ,Behavioral and Social Science ,Conditioning ,Classical ,Female ,Humans ,Male ,Maze Learning ,Pattern Recognition ,Visual ,Space Perception ,User-Computer Interface ,3D virtual environment ,Boundaries ,Spatial integration ,Associative learning ,Learning & Memory ,Cognitive Sciences ,Experimental Psychology ,Applied and developmental psychology ,Biological psychology ,Cognitive and computational psychology - Abstract
Prior research, using two- and three-dimensional environments, has found that when both human and nonhuman animals independently acquire two associations between landmarks with a common landmark (e.g., LM1-LM2 and LM2-LM3), each with its own spatial relationship, they behave as if the two unique LMs have a known spatial relationship despite their never having been paired. Seemingly, they have integrated the two associations to create a third association with its own spatial relationship (LM1-LM3). Using sensory preconditioning (Experiment 1) and second-order conditioning (Experiment 2) procedures, we found that human participants integrated information about the boundaries of pathways to locate a goal within a three-dimensional virtual environment in the absence of any relevant landmarks. Spatial integration depended on the participant experiencing a common boundary feature with which to link the pathways. These results suggest that the principles of associative learning also apply to the boundaries of an environment.
- Published
- 2013