Summary
Young and elderly adults acquired route information from a sequence of slides depicting a walk through an actual environment. The accuracy of their distance knowledge after viewing the slides was compared for a normal presentation and a presentation with temporospatial discontinuity. No differences between age groups were noted under normal presentation conditions, but young adults were more accurate under conditions of temporospatial discontinuity. Results were interpreted in terms of an age-related decrement in the operational capacity of working memory. They were also viewed as supportive of a constructivist-representational theory of spatial learning.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, G. L. (1987). Cognitive influences on the acquisition of route knowledge in children and adults. In P. Ellen & C. Thinus-Blanc (Eds.),Cognitive processes and spatial orientation in animal and man. Vol 2. Neurophysiology and developmental aspects (pp. 274–283). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
Allen, G. L. (1988). The acquisition of spatial knowledge under conditions of temporospatial discontinuity.Psychological Research, 50, 183–190.
Allen, G. L., & Kirasic, K. C. (1985). Effects of the cognitive organization of route knowledge on judgements of macrospatial distance.Memory & Cognition, 13, 218–227.
Allen, G. L., Siegel, A. W., & Rosinski, R. R. (1978). The role of perceptual context in structuring spatial knowledge.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory, 4, 617–630.
Baddeley, A. (1986).Working memory. New York: Oxford University Press.
Briggs, R. (1976). Methodologies for the measurement of cognitive distance. In G. Moore & R. Golledge (Eds.),Environmental knowing (pp. 325–334). Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson, & Ross.
Gibson, J. J. (1979).The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Salthouse, T. A. (1988). Resource-reduction interpretations of cognitive aging.Developmental Review, 8, 238–272.
Salthouse, T. A., & Mitchell, D. R. D. (1989). Structural and operational capacities in integrative spatial ability.Psychology and Aging, 4, 18–25.
Salthouse, T. A., Kausler D. D., & Saults, J. S. (1988). Utilization of path-analytic procedures to investigate the role of processing resources in cognitive aging.Psychology and Aging, 3, 158 -166.
Siegel, A. W., & White, S. H. (1975). The development of spatial representations of large-scale environments. In H. Reese (Ed.),Advances in child development and behavior (Vol 10, pp. 9–55). New York: Academic Press.
Teghtsoonian, R., & Teghtsoonian, M. (1970). Scaling apparent distance in a natural outdoor setting.Psychonomic Science, 21, 215–216.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was conducted while the senior author served as Principal Investigator for National Institute on Aging Grant No. 1 ROI AG05169, “Aging and Spatial Cognition”, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kirasic, K.C., Bernicki, M.R. Acquisition of spatial knowledge under conditions of temporospatial discontinuity in young and elderly adults. Psychol. Res 52, 76–79 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00867215
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00867215