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Sources of Flexibility in Human Cognition: Dual Task Studies of Space and Language

Sources of Flexibility in Human Cognition: Dual Task Studies of Space and Language. Linda Hermer-Vasquez, Elizabeth S. Spelke and Alla S. Katsnelson. Stephanie Lidd and Jamie Tauber. Human Navigation Abilities . Two unique features Capable of dead reckoning Great flexibility

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Sources of Flexibility in Human Cognition: Dual Task Studies of Space and Language

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  1. Sources of Flexibility in Human Cognition: Dual Task Studies of Space and Language Linda Hermer-Vasquez, Elizabeth S. Spelke and Alla S. Katsnelson Stephanie Lidd and Jamie Tauber

  2. Human Navigation Abilities • Two unique features • Capable of dead reckoning • Great flexibility • Disorientation • Can reorient themselves after disorientation • How?

  3. Cheng Experiments (1986) • Tested rats’ abilities to find food after disorientation • Rats went to the correct corner and the geometric equivalent at equally high rates • Despite differences in non-geometric cues (e.g. brightness, pattern, and odor) • Conclusion: Rats reorient in accordance with environment shape (geometric module)

  4. Hermer, Spelke: Orientation Abilities in Children (18-24 Months) • Similar to Cheng’s experiment • Searched for hidden object in all white room, then room with one blue wall • Searched both corners equally in all white room • Failed to use non-geometric property (blue wall) as a way of navigation (like adult rats)

  5. Results for Cheng and Hermer &Spelke

  6. Hermer and Spelke: Adult Disorientation • Conducted same experiment using adults • Adults checked geometrically equivalent corners in white room • Were able to use the blue wall as a way of orienting themselves and finding the object (used non-geometric)

  7. Hermer (1994): Disorientation in Children (3-7 years) • Described position of the object as behind colored wall or to the left or right • Children 4+ were successful in describing the objects position behind the wall • Children 6+ were able to describe the position as ‘left’ or ‘right’ of the wall

  8. Hermer (1997) Spatial Language in Children 5-7 years • Tested children’s abilities to use spatial language • Correlation between spatial language and ability to use non-geometric landmarks to locate objects

  9. Causation Between Spatial Language and Development of Spatial Performance Possibilities • Three possibilities • Independent, but developmentally linked • Depend on a common factor • Development of spatial language produces change in spatial relations

  10. Experiment 1 • Similar to Cheng’s Experiment • White room and room with a blue wall • Tested again in each room with ‘verbal shadowing’: repeating a tape-recorded prose • Non-shadowing conditions had ‘white noise’ playing • Disoriented (spun around) before each trial

  11. Diagram of Chamber Used

  12. Results

  13. Experiment 2A • Visual Experimentation with 3 conditions • Rhythmic Verbal: repetition of ‘na’ • Rhythmic Non-verbal: tapping out pattern • Verbal: Repetition of prose • Computer program showing grids varying numbers of ‘T’s and target ‘L’ • Subjects had to determine presence or absence of target ‘L’

  14. Results

  15. Experiment 2B • Like Experiment One, with modified disorientation for last 8 subjects • Results: • Non-shadowing subjects produced higher accuracy in recognition • Shadowing subjects showed decline in accuracy • Subjects searched with high frequencies in correct and geometrically equivalent corners

  16. Experiment 2C • Identical with 2B except with Rhythmic shadowing • Results: • Shadowing subjects searched the correct corner with higher frequency than the rotationally equivalent corner • Higher accuracy than verbal shadowing • Non-shadowing produced same, accurate results

  17. What’s the Difference? • Rhythmic and Verbal were equally distracting, yet rhythmic was more accurate • Verbal shadowing may interfere with geometric and non-geometric combination process or • Combination process independent, but verbal shadowing may interfere with their ability to detect or remember the non-geometric landmark

  18. Experiment 3 • Verbally shadowing subjects with a simplified version of tests • Instead of being hidden to the left or right, was hidden on top of the walls • Walls were removed from chamber to remove the geometric cues

  19. Results • Subjects located the object with high accuracy • Landmark-appropriate search was higher in Experiment 3 than in the verbal shadowing conditions of Experiments 1 and 2b • Showed adults used non-geometric cues, despite disorientation

  20. Experiment 4 • Like Experiment 3, except the object was placed to the left or right of the wall • If verbal shadowing impairs the encoding of non-geometric information only in reorientation tasks, then both subjects should successfully find the object • If verbal shadowing impairs the conjoining of geometric and non-geometric information then non-shadowing subjects should find the object but shadowing subjects should not.

  21. Results

  22. Conclusions • Spatial memory system found in children and adult rats is present in adult humans • Language plays a role in the conjoining of geometric and non-geometric information

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