title: Biases in long-term location memory in the real world.
abstract: The category adjustment (CA) approach to distortions in location memory has been largely documented in simplified lab-created spaces but minimally in navigable real-world environments. In the current paper, we extend the approach to a navigable real-world environment and specifically evaluate the assumption that long-term location memory may be retrievable despite errors in recall. Memory for the location of a fountain in a heavily navigated square on a university campus was tested by reproduction on a photograph of the square and then by a forced-choice recognition test. While the recall data showed the standard bias, the recognition data revealed chance-level performance. The pattern of results suggests a possible difference between accessibility of working memories for locations within laboratory-created spaces and long-term memories for locations within complex navigable spaces. The results are discussed in terms of the CA model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA. cristina.sampaio@wwu.edu
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sampaio
authors.forename: Brittany A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Cardwell
mesh_terms: D015982:Bias; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities