Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

The Difficulty of Effectively Using Allocentric Prior Information in a Spatial Recall Task

Negen, J.; Bird, L.A.; King, E.; Nardini, M.

The Difficulty of Effectively Using Allocentric Prior Information in a Spatial Recall Task Thumbnail


Authors

J. Negen

Laura Bird laura-ashleigh.bird@durham.ac.uk
Research Associate

E. King



Abstract

Prior information represents the long-term statistical structure of an environment. For example, colds develop more often than throat cancer, making the former a more likely diagnosis for a sore throat. There is ample evidence for effective use of prior information during a variety of perceptual tasks, including the ability to recall locations using an egocentric (self-based) frame. However, it is not yet known if people can use prior information effectively when using an allocentric (world-based) frame. Forty-eight adults were shown sixty sets of three target locations in a sparse virtual environment with three beacons. The targets were drawn from one of four prior distributions. They were then asked to point to the targets after a delay and a change in perspective. While searches were biased towards the beacons, we did not find any evidence that participants successfully exploited the prior distributions of targets. These results suggest that allocentric reasoning does not conform to normative Bayesian models: we saw no evidence for use of priors in our cognitively-complex (allocentric) task, unlike in previous, simpler (egocentric) recall tasks. It is possible that this reflects the high biological cost of processing precise allocentric information.

Citation

Negen, J., Bird, L., King, E., & Nardini, M. (2020). The Difficulty of Effectively Using Allocentric Prior Information in a Spatial Recall Task. Scientific Reports, 10, Article 7000. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62775-5

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 10, 2020
Online Publication Date Apr 24, 2020
Publication Date 2020
Deposit Date Mar 24, 2020
Publicly Available Date May 5, 2020
Journal Scientific Reports
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Article Number 7000
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62775-5

Files

Published Journal Article (2.9 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or
format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the
copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations