TY - JOUR
T1 - Place Learning in Virtual Space
T2 - II. Topographical Relations as One Dimension of Stimulus Control
AU - Jacobs, W. Jake
AU - Thomas, Kevin G.F.
AU - Laurance, Holly E.
AU - Nadel, Lynn
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a grant from a McDonnell-Pew Program in Cognitive Neuroscience awarded to the first author. We gratefully acknowledge earlier support from the James H. Zumberge Faculty Research and Innovation Fund awarded to the first author. We thank Ron Skelton and Cindy Bukach for their contribution to these studies. We also thank Thomas Brunner, Nancy Barron, Tonya Hancock, Ming Hsu, Holly Jindrick, Donna Miller, Mark Stein, Janet Stewart, Dorothy Whitacer, and Jessica Zimmerman for their hard work, thought, and patience. As always we thank Joe Demers who wrote the original program. The second and third authors performed the statistical analyses.
PY - 1998/8
Y1 - 1998/8
N2 - Three experiments using human participants examined a major prediction derived from cognitive mapping theory of place learning: In the absence of proximal cues, place performance depends on relations among distal cues. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that, after learning to find an invisible target in computer-generated (C-G) space, removing the full set of distal stimuli disrupted place performance but removing subsets of distal stimuli did not. These results demonstrate that the full array of distal cues are critical to stimulus control of place performance in this C-G space whereas individual stimuli are not. Experiment 3 showed that, after learning to find an invisible target in the same C-G space, changes in topographical relations among the distal stimuli disrupted place performance. As predicted by cognitive mapping theory, the results suggest that participants use relations among distal cues to guide place performance in C-G space. In addition, the results support the assertion that place learning in C-G space is comparable to both rat and human place learning in mundane space.
AB - Three experiments using human participants examined a major prediction derived from cognitive mapping theory of place learning: In the absence of proximal cues, place performance depends on relations among distal cues. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that, after learning to find an invisible target in computer-generated (C-G) space, removing the full set of distal stimuli disrupted place performance but removing subsets of distal stimuli did not. These results demonstrate that the full array of distal cues are critical to stimulus control of place performance in this C-G space whereas individual stimuli are not. Experiment 3 showed that, after learning to find an invisible target in the same C-G space, changes in topographical relations among the distal stimuli disrupted place performance. As predicted by cognitive mapping theory, the results suggest that participants use relations among distal cues to guide place performance in C-G space. In addition, the results support the assertion that place learning in C-G space is comparable to both rat and human place learning in mundane space.
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U2 - 10.1006/lmot.1998.1008
DO - 10.1006/lmot.1998.1008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001140811
SN - 0023-9690
VL - 29
SP - 288
EP - 308
JO - Learning and Motivation
JF - Learning and Motivation
IS - 3
ER -