title: How the Learning Path and the Very Structure of a Multifloored Environment Influence Human Spatial Memory.
abstract: Few studies have explored how humans memorize landmarks in complex multifloored buildings. They have observed that participants memorize an environment either by floors or by vertical columns, influenced by the learning path. However, the influence of the building's actual structure is not yet known. In order to investigate this influence, we conducted an experiment using an object-in-place protocol in a cylindrical building to contrast with previous experiments which used rectilinear environments. Two groups of 15 participants were taken on a tour with a first person perspective through a virtual cylindrical three-floored building. They followed either a route discovering floors one at a time, or a route discovering columns (by simulated lifts across floors). They then underwent a series of trials, in which they viewed a camera movement reproducing either a segment of the learning path (familiar trials), or performing a shortcut relative to the learning trajectory (novel trials). We observed that regardless of the learning path, participants better memorized the building by floors, and only participants who had discovered the building by columns also memorized it by columns. This expands on previous results obtained in a rectilinear building, where the learning path favoured the memory of its horizontal and vertical layout. Taken together, these results suggest that both learning mode and an environment's structure influence the spatial memory of complex multifloored buildings.
authors.affiliation: Perception and Action Physiology Laboratory, Collège de France, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dollé
authors.affiliation: The Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR), Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Droulez
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mathematics, Team Geometry and Dynamics, Paris Diderot University, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bennequin
authors.affiliation: Collège de France, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berthoz
authors.affiliation: Electricité de France R&D, Clamart, France.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thibault
keywords: navigation and spatial memory; representation; spatial cognition