Where you are affects what you can easily imagine: Environmental geometry elicits sensorimotor interference in remote perspective taking.

ABSTRACT: Imagined perspective switches are notoriously difficult, a fact often ascribed to sensorimotor interference between one's to-be-imagined versus actual orientation. Here, we demonstrate similar interference effects, even if participants know they are in a remote environment with unknown spatial relation to the learning environment. Participants learned 15 target objects irregularly arranged in an office from one orientation (0°, 120°, or 240°). Participants were blindfolded and disoriented before being wheeled to a test room of similar geometry (exp.1) or different geometry (exp.2). Participants were seated facing 0, 120°, or 240°, and asked to perform judgments of relative direction (JRD, e.g., imagine facing "pen", point to "phone"). JRD performance was improved when participants' to-be-i

SUBMITTER: Riecke BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5612917 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature