The Influence Of Scene Rotation And Observer Movement On Contextual Cueing Effect

When we look at the same scene from different perspectives,the retinal image would be significantly different.Therefore can the memory trace of one visual scene be accessed in a new perspective?There are currently two controversial views,one view is that space memory depends on the learning perspective,which can only adopt the egocentric reference frame;in another view,the spatial memory is independent of the original learning perspective and could employ the allocentric reference frame to encode the scene.Research based on explicit memory task reveals that both spatial representations can be exploited under different tasks.However,the research on the spatial representation of implicit memory is limited,and the previous research finds that implicit memory cannot migrate to a new perspective outside the learning perspective,and can only be characterized by a lack of flexible retinal images.The current study is designed to explore whether the encoding process of implicit memory could integrate with spatial reference information,so as to acquire the relation memory between the object and the frame of the scene.The current study adopted an implicit memory paradigm named contextual cueing effect to explore whether the implicit memory of spatial knowledge could be encoded with the allocentric reference frame.Three variables are mainly manipulated in this study,including two-dimensional rotation or three-dimensional rotation,internal and external allocentric reference frames,and the way of view change.The first part contains three experiments,which used scenes consisting of two-dimensional artificial material and varied different kinds of spatial reference information in the scene.In experiment 1a.both internal and external reference clues are provided in the visual scene.48 participants,assigned into 3 groups randomly,went through 0 degrees,45 degrees,and 60 degrees of scene rotation respectively in the test phase.The results showed that the learned contextual cueing effect of different groups were equally transferred to the novel view,no difference was observed between groups.Experiment 1b recruited 12 fresh participants to perform the same program with the 45-degree group in experiment la while recording the eye movements during the search task.The results showed that the patterns of the contextual cueing effect are consistent before and after rotation.In experiment 2,only the internal reference frame was provided.32 participants were assigned to 2 groups,who went through the real rotation and false rotation in the test phase respectively.The result indicated that the learned effect of contextual cueing disappeared in the testing phase of the real rotation group,but remained in the false group.In experiment 3,only the external reference frame was provided.32 participants performed the same task with experiment 2.The results showed that the learned effect reduced in the testing phase of the real rotation group,but reduced in the false group.According to the results in this part,the conclusion can be drawn as follow:In two-dimensional artificial scenes,the contextual cueing effect can migrate to a new perspective,and providing sufficient reference information is an essential requirement.In the second part,visual scenes were projected on the floor and a new variable of observer self-movement was introduced.Experiment 4 provided the internal reference frames in the scene,64 participants were assigned to 4 groups.After learning the effect in the same position,one group stayed in the same spot while the scene did not change(OoSo),another group moved to a new viewpoint while the scene did not change(O+So),the third group stayed at the same point while the scene rotated to a new perspective(O0S+),the last group moved to a new viewpoint while the scene rotated to the same direction(O+S+).Under this manipulation,Group OoSo and O+S+ could see the same visual images that they learned in the testing phase,while Group O+So and Group O0S+got different ones.The results found that although the visual images were different from learning phase,the contextual cueing effect was transferred to the new viewpoint in Group O+So,while in the Group O0S+ it was not.Experiment 5 removed the spatial reference information on the scene.64 new participants were recruited and performed the same task with experiment 4.The results found that the contextual cueing effect of Group O+S0 and O0S+ was disappeared in the test phase.The results of experiment 4&5 illustrated that the self-movement of the observer will contribute to the transfer of contextual cueing to the different viewpoint,which was called spatial updating effect.At the same time,the spatial reference information is necessary for the updating effect.In the third part,three-dimensional real world objects were used to compose the visual search scenes,while the semantic information in the real world scene was excluded.Experiment 6 provided the internal spatial reference clues of the scenes.32 participants were assigned into 2 groups,and experienced 0 degrees or 45 degrees rotation in the testing phase respectively.The result was that the contextual cueing effect in the 45-degree rotation group was significantly weakened.Experiment 7 use the same material as experiment 6.64 participants were assigned into 4 groups and went through the same conditions with experiment 4.The result showed that the effect of contextual cueing was maintained in Group O+S0,while it was not in Group O0S+.The result of experiment 6&7 indicated that the contextual cueing effect can also transfer to a novel view relying on the spatial reference frames and the information brought by self-movement under 3d scene rotation with a more complicated change of spatial information.Under the experimental conditions of the current study,the following conclusions can be drawn:1.The contextual cueing effect can be independent of the learning perspective,either in two-dimensional artificial scenes or in three-dimensional real world scenes,which implies that,in addition to the retina image.the contextual cueing effect can also rely on allocentric spatial reference information in the coding process.2.The migration contextual cueing effect between different perspectives needs to be achieved by using spatial reference information.Different types of spatial reference information play different roles in this process.3.The spatial updating effect by self-movement were observed in both two-dimensional artificial and three-dimensional real world scenes,along with the requirement of spatial reference information.