Effects Of Physical Movement And Reference Frame On Spatial Updating In Described Environment

People frequently shuttle through various three-dimensional space in everyday life and spatial updating helps prevent them from getting lost within an environment.Spatial updating refers to the automatic process of keeping track of the changing selfto-object relations while the individual is moving.Previous studies have found that people can automatically complete the spatial updating in an immediate environment.But it remains to be verified whether spatial updating can be achieved in described environments.In addition,physical movements are often necessary in the process of spatial updating and different types of body movements can affect individuals’ spatial updating to varying degrees.The selection of spatial reference frames also affects the construction of spatial representation.However,body movements involved in previous studies mainly include rotation movements,and few studies focus on other forms of movements such as walking.Besides,major studies about reference frames focus on immediate environments and virtual environments while few studies have explored the effect of spatial reference frames on spatial updating in described environments.Therefore,relations among physical movements,spatial reference frames and spatial updating in described environments need to be further investigated.This study explored the relations among the aforementioned three variables through three experiments and constructed several environment texts based on previous studies.Across three experiments,subjects were required to learn the environmental texts and complete the task of judgement of relative directions.Subjects’ orientation time,accuracy for test,and time for test were recorded.Experiment 1 was a 3(perspective)× 4(physical movement)mixed design.Seventy subjects’ spatial updating performance under different conditions of body movements were analyzed to verify the influence of body movement on spatial updating and the existence of the encoding alignment effect and the sensorimotor alignment effect.Results showed that(1)The walking group and the translation group spent marginally significantly more time than the control group in the opposite-testing perspective;(2)The control group,rotation group,translation group,and walking group all exhibited the encoding alignment effect,and only the translation group and walking group showed the sensorimotor alignment effect.On the basis of Experiment 1,Experiment 2 added two conditions: walking during and after the encoding of described environments,and visualization after walking,which aimed to explore in which condition walking could promote spatial updating.Experiment 2 was a 3(perspective)× 4(physical movement)mixed design.Results of seventy-seven subjects revealed that(1)Subjects spent significantly more time in the walking(during and after encoding)group than in the control group in both learning and opposite-testing perspectives;subjects spent marginally significantly more time in the walking(during and after encoding)group than in the visualization after walking group in the learning perspective;(2)The walking(during and after encoding)group and visualization group all showed the encoding alignment effect,and the walking(during and after encoding)group exhibited the sensorimotor alignment effect.Experiment 3 was based on Experiment 1 and Experiment 2,and further investigated which kind of spatial reference frames could facilitate spatial updating in the walking(during and after encoding)group.Experiment 3 was a 2(reference frame)× 3(perspective)× 2(physical movement)mixed design.Results of 86 subjects found that(1)In all the three perspectives,the control group in the condition of egocentric plus allocentric frame of reference spent significantly less time than that in the egocentric condition;(2)In the opposite-testing perspective,the walking(during and after encoding)group in the egocentric condition spent significantly less time than the control group in the same condition.To sum up,this study shows that physical movement does not necessarily facilitate spatial updating,and it may even hinder spatial updating in described environments.Additionally,physical movement and reference frames can also interact with the people’s performance of spatial updating.In the condition of egocentric plus allocentric frame of reference,people in the walking group(during and after encoding)behave worst in spatial updating,compared with those in the rotation group,translation group,and walking group.That’s to say,people can perform well in spatial updating only by spatial imagery.However,in the condition of egocentric frame of reference,walking during and after encoding is more conducive to spatial updating than spatial imagery.This study contradicts with the traditional view that "physical movement can definitely facilitate spatial updating",provides evidence for the influence of physical movement and spatial reference frame on spatial updating,and also gives insight for the design and efficient use of navigation voice applications.