The relation between navigation strategy and associative memory: An individual differences approach.
Although the hippocampus is implicated in both spatial navigation and associative memory, very little is known about whether individual differences in the 2 domains covary. People who prefer to navigate using a hippocampal-dependent place strategy may show better performance on associative memory tasks than those who prefer a caudate-dependent response strategy (Bohbot, Gupta, Banner, & Dahmani, 2011), but not all studies suggest such an effect (Woollett & Maguire, 2009, 2012). Here we tested nonexpert young adults and found that preference for a place strategy positively correlated with spatial (object-location) associative memory performance but did not correlate with nonspatial (face-name) associative memory performance. Importantly, these correlations differed from each other, indicating that the relation between navigation strategy and associative memory is specific to the spatial domain. In addition, the 2 associative memory tasks significantly correlated, suggesting that object-location memory taps into processes relevant to both hippocampal-dependent navigation and nonspatial associative memory. Our findings also suggest that individual differences in spatial associative memory may account for some of the variance in navigation strategies.
Department of Psychology, Temple University.
Chi T
CT
Ngo
Department of Psychology, Temple University.
Steven M
0000-0001-7003-6082
SM
Weisberg
Department of Psychology, Temple University.
Nora S
NS
Newcombe
Department of Psychology, Temple University.
Ingrid R
IR
Olson
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001244:Association; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011897:Random Allocation; D065854:Spatial Navigation; D055815:Young Adult