Skip to main content
Log in

Acquisition of spatial knowledge under conditions of temporospatial discontinuity in young and elderly adults

  • Published:
Psychological Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

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.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

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.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, G. L. (1988). The acquisition of spatial knowledge under conditions of temporospatial discontinuity.Psychological Research, 50, 183–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley, A. (1986).Working memory. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, J. J. (1979).The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salthouse, T. A. (1988). Resource-reduction interpretations of cognitive aging.Developmental Review, 8, 238–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salthouse, T. A., & Mitchell, D. R. D. (1989). Structural and operational capacities in integrative spatial ability.Psychology and Aging, 4, 18–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teghtsoonian, R., & Teghtsoonian, M. (1970). Scaling apparent distance in a natural outdoor setting.Psychonomic Science, 21, 215–216.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

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

Reprints 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

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00867215

Keywords

Navigation