title: Overshadowing in landmark learning: touch-screen studies with pigeons and humans.
abstract: Overshadowing in landmark learning was studied in pigeons and undergraduates using a touch-screen spatial search task. Ss searched for an unmarked goal presented in varied locations on a computer screen. Graphic stimuli served as landmarks. The effect of the presence of other landmarks on the control acquired by a given landmark was assessed using a design in which each S was trained with 2 sets of landmarks. Both pigeons (Experiment 1) and humans (Experiments 2-4) showed evidence of learning more about a landmark that was the closest landmark of its set to the goal than about a landmark that was of equal distance to the goal but was not the closest landmark of its set. That is, control by a landmark was overshadowed when it occurred together with a landmark that was closer to the goal. Landmark effectiveness appears to depend not only on the absolute properties of a landmark but on relative factors. The relevance of basic principles of associative learning to spatial landmark learning is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Spetch
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003196:Computer Graphics; D004215:Distance Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance