Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Facilitation Of Learning Spatial Relations Among Goal Locations Does Not Require Visual Exposure To The Configuration Of Goal Locations, Bradley R. Sturz, Debbie M. Kelly, Michael F. Brown

Department of Psychology Faculty Presentations

Human participants searched in a virtual-environment open-field search task for four hidden goal locations arranged in a diamond configuration located in a 5 x 5 matrix. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Pattern Only, Landmark + Pattern, or Cues + Pattern. All participants experienced a Training phase followed by a Testing phase. During Training, visual cues were coincident with goal locations for the Cues + Pattern group, and a single visual cue at a non-goal location maintained a consistent spatial relationship with the goal locations for the Landmark + Pattern group. All groups were then tested in …