Department of Psychology, Georgia Southern University, P.O. Box 8041, Statesboro, GA 30460, USA.
Psychol Res. 2013 Mar;77(2):176-82. doi: 10.1007/s00426-011-0410-z. Epub 2012 Jan 3.
Using a dynamic three-dimensional virtual environment task, we investigated the influence of overtraining of feature and geometric cues on preferential spatial cue use. We trained two groups of human participants to respond to feature and geometric cues in separate enclosures before placing these cues in conflict on a critical test trial. All participants learned to respond to rewarded features located along the principal axis of a rectangular search space and to rewarded geometric cues of a rectangular search space in separate training phases followed by a single test trial. During the test trial, we situated the rewarded features in the unrewarded geometric corners and the unrewarded features in rewarded geometric corners. For one group, participants were overtrained with feature cues compared to geometric cues before experiencing the conflict test; whereas, for another group, participants were overtrained with geometric cues compared to feature cues before experiencing the conflict test. Although both groups learned to respond to both feature and geometric cues at an equivalent rate and to an equivalent level of terminal accuracy, testing results revealed no difference between the groups with respect to their preference for feature or geometric cues. Despite a lack of influence of overtraining on spatial cue preference, participants showed an overall preference for feature cues. We discuss the results with respect to implications for theoretical accounts of spatial learning.
我们使用动态三维虚拟环境任务，研究了特征和几何线索过度训练对优先空间线索使用的影响。我们训练两组人类参与者在关键测试试验中将特征和几何线索置于冲突之前，分别在单独的围场中对特征和几何线索做出反应。所有参与者都在单独的训练阶段学习了在矩形搜索空间的主坐标轴上定位奖励特征和在矩形搜索空间中定位奖励几何线索，然后进行单次测试试验。在测试试验中，我们将奖励特征置于非奖励几何角，将非奖励特征置于奖励几何角。对于一组参与者，与经历冲突测试之前相比，他们在特征线索上的过度训练比对几何线索的过度训练更多；而对于另一组参与者，与经历冲突测试之前相比，他们在几何线索上的过度训练比对特征线索的过度训练更多。尽管两组参与者以相等的速度和相等的最终准确性学习了对特征和几何线索的反应，但测试结果显示，两组参与者在对特征或几何线索的偏好方面没有差异。尽管过度训练对空间线索偏好没有影响，但参与者总体上表现出对特征线索的偏好。我们根据对空间学习理论解释的意义来讨论结果。
