S1 (FriAM 1-65) - The Psychonomic Society

Posters 1083–1089 Thursday Evening
practice and performance. By means of a linear mixed models analysis,
we showed that throughout chess players’ careers, a strong relation
was found between deliberate practice and chess ratings. Moreover,
differences between persisters and later dropouts were the result
of lower engagement in deliberate practice, from an early point on.
This rejects the possibility that the relation between deliberate practice
and performance only holds for those who eventually reach the
top. Finally, the performance difference between males and females
could mainly be attributed to less deliberate practice by females.
(1083)
Learning the Relations Between Multiple Inputs and Outputs:
Integration Effects in a Diagnostic Task. JON TALL, ROBERT
MATHEWS, SEAN LANE, & BILL SALLAS, Louisiana State University—In
real-world situations, it is often difficult to figure out what
“works.” We often have multiple behavioral options and multiple ways
that we could measure the impact of our behavior. In three experiments,
we modeled this complexity using a managerial task that involved
learning the effect of multiple inputs (interventions) on multiple
performance measures of employees. Participants “met” with
each employee to improve their performance and to learn which interventions
were most helpful overall. Later, on separate tests, they
prescribed the best intervention for each participant and indicated the
impact of each intervention on each performance measure. The critical
manipulation was whether a key variable had a negative side effect
or not. The major finding was that, although participants appeared
to integrate their knowledge of the side effect into their
decisions (by prescribing it less), they nevertheless did not indicate
any knowledge of its impact when explicitly queried about it.
• IMAGERY AND SPATIAL COGNITION •
(1084)
Quantitative and Qualitative Gender Differences in Learning
Large Spaces. ANN EKECHUKWU, Vanderbilt University, JULIA
SLUZENSKI, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, & TIMOTHY P.
MCNAMARA, Vanderbilt University (sponsored by Timothy P.
McNamara)—Males and females walked a straight path through a field
while memorizing the locations of surrounding objects. About 10 min
later they performed a computer task requiring them to recall the interobject
angles. Males had lower angular error than females, suggesting
that the earlier finding was not due to the context of the baseball
field. Males were also less likely than females to use a verbal strategy
during learning. In addition, we investigated whether performance on
the field task was related to performance on nonnavigational spatial
tasks and to verbal ability. For males, performance on the field task was
generally related to other spatial abilities, whereas for females this
finding was not as strong. In contrast to males, female performance
was related to verbal ability. Collectively, these findings suggest that
males rely more on quantitative spatial coding than do females, and
that females rely more on verbal spatial coding than do males.
(1085)
Factors Affecting Object–Object Information in Spatial Representations
II. JESSE SARGENT, STEPHEN C. DOPKINS, & JOHN W.
PHILBECK, George Washington University—Human subjects learned
the location of four objects around them in a room. However, visual
access was restricted during preview such that a particular adjacent
pair of the four objects (between-image pair) could never be seen together
from the same point of view. Participants were then blindfolded
and underwent passive whole-body rotations, pointing to the objects
after each rotation. The error in locating one object relative to another
was greater for the between-image pair than for the within-image pairs
that could be viewed together during preview. Between- and withinimage
pairs were matched for angular separation. The results are interpreted
as suggesting that in representations of detailed spatial information
about remembered, immediate room-sized environments,
certain objects “bind” together more tightly than others. Possible al-
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locentric characteristics of such “bound” object representations and
the role of visual imagery are considered.
(1086)
Similarity Between Room Layouts Causes Orientation-Specific
Sensorimotor Interference in To-Be-Imagined Perspective Switches.
BERNHARD E. RIECKE & TIMOTHY P. MCNAMARA, Vanderbilt
University—May (2004) suggested that the difficulty of imagined perspective
switches is partially caused by interference between the sensorimotor
(actual) and to-be-imagined orientation. Here, we demonstrate
a similar interference, even if participants are in a remote room
and don’t know their physical orientation with respect to the to-beimagined
orientation. Participants learned 15 target objects located in
an office from one orientation (0º, 120º, or 240º). Participants were
blindfolded and disoriented before being wheeled to an empty test
room of similar geometry. Participants were seated facing 0º, 120º, or
240º, and were asked to perform judgments of relative direction (e.g.,
imagine facing “pen,” point to “phone”). Performance was facilitated
when participants’ to-be-imagined orientation in the learning room
was aligned with the corresponding orientation in the test room. This
suggests that merely being in an empty room of similar geometry can
be sufficient to automatically reanchor one’s representation and thus
produce orientation-specific interference.
(1087)
Inferring Cross Sections: Benefits of Spatial Visualization Training.
CHERYL A. COHEN & MARY HEGARTY, University of California,
Santa Barbara (sponsored by Mary Hegarty)—We examined the benefits
of training with virtual objects on a spatial visualization task that
involves identifying the cross section of a geometric solid. In Experiment
1, a novel 30-item multiple choice test was developed to measure
individual differences in this task. Performance was related to orientation
of the cutting plane (orthogonal or oblique) and to spatial ability.
Errors indicated that low-spatial participants often failed to shift mental
perspective to the requisite view orientation of the cross section. In
Experiments 2 and 3, low-spatial participants were trained by allowing
them to pass a plane through a virtual object and observe the resulting
cross section. This training lead to large gains in performance
of trained individuals in comparison with controls. Performance improved
on the trained objects and transferred to novel objects. The results
suggested that individuals learned to recognize specific cross sectional
shapes and to assume the correct view orientation.
(1088)
Mitigating Effects of Spatial Ability on Mental and Manual Rotation.
ANDREW T. STULL, MARY HEGARTY, & RICHARD E. MAYER,
University of California, Santa Barbara—In two experiments, individuals
of differing spatial ability were measured on response time,
orientation matching, and path directness as they manipulated a virtual
3-D object in two conditions, with or without orientation references
(ORs). In Experiment 1, participants attempted to quickly and
accurately match 40 targets randomly rotated around 40 unique, noncanonical
axes. In Experiment 2, participants attempted to match 44
targets systematically rotated around the three canonical axes or a
noncanonical axis. In both experiments, the OR group responded significantly
faster, more accurately, and more directly than the non-OR
group. Performance was correlated with spatial ability, and effects of
spatial ability were mitigated in the OR group. These results suggest
that orientation references may help individuals mentally and manually
manipulate complex objects. Furthermore, it may be possible to
alleviate difficulties of low-spatial individuals by providing orientation
references.
• SPATIAL MEMORY •
(1089)
Spatial Ability and Working Memory: Just and Carpenter (1985) Revisited.
DALE KLOPFER, JEREMY ATHY, & LAURA LEVENTHAL,