Allocentric-heading recall and its relation to self-reported sense-of-direction.
A sense of direction (SOD) computes the body's facing direction relative to a reference frame grounded in the environment. The authors report on three experiments in which they used a heading-recall task to tap the functioning of a SOD system and then correlated task performance with self-reported SOD as a convergent test of the task's construct validity. On each heading-recall trial, the participant judged the photographer's allocentric heading when photographing a pictured outdoor scene. Participants were tested over the full range of SOD ratings in Experiment 1, and in Experiments 2 and 3 heading-recall at the SOD extremes was tested. In all experiments, there was wide variability in heading-recall accuracy that covaried with self-rated SOD. Parametric manipulation of various task parameters revealed some likely functional properties of the SOD system. The results support the psychological reality of a SOD system and further indicate that there are large individual differences in the efficacy with which the system functions.
Sholl
M Jeanne
MJ
Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3807, USA. sholl@bc.ed
Kenny
Ryan J
RJ
DellaPorta
Katherine A
KA
D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003201:Computers; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009039:Motion Perception; D009949:Orientation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013028:Space Perception