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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Where Is Uphill? Exploring Sex Differences When Reorienting On A Sloped Environment Presented Through 2-D Images, Daniele Nardi, Roberta Miloni, Marco Orlandi, Marta Olivetti-Belardinelli
Where Is Uphill? Exploring Sex Differences When Reorienting On A Sloped Environment Presented Through 2-D Images, Daniele Nardi, Roberta Miloni, Marco Orlandi, Marta Olivetti-Belardinelli
Faculty Research and Creative Activity
One of the spatial abilities that has recently revealed a remarkable variability in performance is that of using terrain slope to reorient. Previous studies have shown a very large disadvantage for females when the slope of the floor is the only information useful for encoding a goal location. However, the source of this sex difference is still unclear. The slope of the environment provides a directional source of information that is perceived through dissociable visual and kinesthetic sensory modalities. Here we focused on the visual information, and examined whether there are sex differences in the perception of a slope presented …
Reorienting With Terrain Slope And Landmarks, Daniele Nardi, Nora S. Newcombe, Thomas F. Shipley
Reorienting With Terrain Slope And Landmarks, Daniele Nardi, Nora S. Newcombe, Thomas F. Shipley
Faculty Research and Creative Activity
Orientation (or reorientation) is the first step in navigation, because establishing a spatial frame of reference is essential for a sense of location and heading direction. Recent research on nonhuman animals has revealed that the vertical component of an environment provides an important source of spatial information, in both terrestrial and aquatic settings. Nonetheless, humans show large individual and sex differences in the ability to use terrain slope for reorientation. To understand why some participants—mainly women—exhibit a difficulty with slope, we tested reorientation in a richer environment than had been used previously, including both a tilted floor and a set …
Does Terrain Slope Really Dominate Goal Searching?, Daniele Nardi
Does Terrain Slope Really Dominate Goal Searching?, Daniele Nardi
Faculty Research and Creative Activity
If you can locate a target by using one reliable source of information, why would you use an unreliable one? A similar question has been faced in a recent study on homing pigeons, in which, despite the presence of better predictors of the goal location, the slope of the floor in an arena dominated the searching process. This piece of evidence seems to contradict straightforward accounts of associative learning, according to which behavior should be controlled by the stimulus that best predicts the reward, and has fueled interest toward one question that, to date, has received scarce attention in the …
The World Is Not Flat: Can People Reorient Using Slope?, Daniele Nardi, Nora S. Newcombe, Thomas F. Shipley
The World Is Not Flat: Can People Reorient Using Slope?, Daniele Nardi, Nora S. Newcombe, Thomas F. Shipley
Faculty Research and Creative Activity
Studies of spatial representation generally focus on flat environments and visual input. However, the world is not flat, and slopes are part of most natural environments. In a series of 4 experiments, we examined whether humans can use a slope as a source of allocentric, directional information for reorientation. A target was hidden in a corner of a square, featureless enclosure tilted at a 5° angle. Finding it required using the vestibular, kinesthetic, and visual cues associated with the slope gradient. In Experiment 1, the overall sample performed above chance, showing that slope is sufficient for reorientation in a real …
The Role Of Slope In Human Reorientation, Daniele Nardi, Nora S. Newcombe, Thomas F. Shipley
The Role Of Slope In Human Reorientation, Daniele Nardi, Nora S. Newcombe, Thomas F. Shipley
Faculty Research and Creative Activity
Studies of spatial representation generally focus on flat environments and visual stimuli. However, the world is not flat, and slopes are part of many natural environments. In a series of four experiments, we examined whether humans can use a slope as a source of allocentric, directional information for reorientation. A target was hidden in a corner of a square, featureless enclosure tilted at a 5° angle. Finding it required using the vestibular, kinesthetic and vis-ual cues associated with the slope gradient. Participants succeeded in the task; however, a large sex difference emerged. Men showed a greater ability in using slope …