The Implicit Learning Of Spatial Information:Egocentric Reference Or Allocentric Reference?

In ordinary living,we are always surrounded by a great number of abundant spatial information.On the one hand,we are learning consciously and explicitly,on the other hand,there is a form of meaningless memory in our brain,which participates in and influences our learning and memory procession.In 1998,when Chun and Jiang presented the target object with a specific backdrop to the subjects for multiple times,it was found that the subjects formed implicit memory to accelerate their search behavior.This phenomenon is named contextual cueing effect by researchers,which is a classical paradigm of implicit learning and memory.We need organize spatial information,represent the spatial orientation and give specific orientation to objects frequently.The spatial reference frames approach is often applied to characterize the spatial orientation,which consists of an egocentric reference frame and an allocentric reference frame.The egocentric reference frame regards observer himself or herself as a reference,based on the relative relationship between himself or herself and the object to characterize the object in space.The allocentric reference frame uses meridian and parallel as the references to represent the orientation of the objects in the space based on the relationship between the environment and the object.There is still a theoretical argument that whether the representation of the object position and the spatial relationship is characterized by egocentric reference frame or allocentric reference frame.This study includes the following four experiments to explore this issue:Through contextual cueing effect paradigm,experiment 1 explored whether the subjects could use the environmental information in the space to carry out the environmental reference characterization in the process of implicit learning of space information.Experiment 1 separated egocentric reference frame and an allocentric reference frame by rotating the screen.The design of experiment consisted of 2(scene:repeat,new)×7(time period:1-7).Scene and time period are independent variables and the dependent variable of the experiment is the reaction time and accuracy of the search.The results showed that the subjects had learned the contextual cueing effect in the learning stage.The effect was maintained during the test phase after screen was rotated.Based on Experiment 1,in the test phase,Experiment 2 used black rings to cover the screen frame which could provide environmental characteristics information to explore whether the subjects used the spatial characterization information in the experiment.The dependent and dependent variables in Experiment 2 are the same as in Experiment 1.The results showed that the subjects had learned the contextual cueing effect in the learning stage.The effect was maintained during the test phase after rotating the screen.Experiment 3 manipulated the orientation of the interference letter L in the scene so that they were randomly rotated by 45 °,90°,135 °,180 °,225 °,and 270 °,respectively.At the same time,the black ring was used in the test phase to cover the screen to see whether the subjects used the common spatial orientation between the objects to represent the space.The independent and dependent variables in Experiment 3 are the same as in Experiment 1.The results showed that the subjects had learned the contextual cueing effect in the learning stage.However,the effect disappeared during the test phase after rotating the screen.The orientation of the interference letter L in the scene was also manipulated in Experiment 4,but the black ring was removed in the test phase,therefore,the important environmental characteristic information of the screen frame was given to the subjects to explore whether they could use the screen frame and the relationship between objects to represent the space by the reference of center of the environment when the common orientation between the objects was undermined and only the relationship between the object and the screen border contact was retained.The dependent and independent variables in Experiment 4 are the same as in Experiment 1.The results showed that the subjects had learned the contextual cueing effect in the learning stage,however,the effect disappeared during the test phase after the screen was rotated.The following conclusions have been obtained from this study:(1)Contextual cueing effect learning is not just based on the "snapshot" of the representation from egocentric reference frame,but also can use the allocentric reference frame to characterize.(2)In the process of implicit learning of spatial information,environmental information can be used by the subjects as a reference.(3)Under the condition of rotating the screen,the subjects did not use the relative relationship between the object and the screen frame to carry on the spatial characterization in the process of maintaining contextual cueing effect.(4)Under the condition of rotating the screen,the subjects use the internal reference system established on the basis of the common orientation between objects to represent the spatial information.