Department of Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Strasse 10F, 35394, Giessen, Hesse, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60323, Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jul 5;14(1):15549. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-66428-9.
Interacting with objects in our environment requires determining their locations, often with respect to surrounding objects (i.e., allocentrically). According to the scene grammar framework, these usually small, local objects are movable within a scene and represent the lowest level of a scene's hierarchy. How do higher hierarchical levels of scene grammar influence allocentric coding for memory-guided actions? Here, we focused on the effect of large, immovable objects (anchors) on the encoding of local object positions. In a virtual reality study, participants (n = 30) viewed one of four possible scenes (two kitchens or two bathrooms), with two anchors connected by a shelf, onto which were presented three local objects (congruent with one anchor) (Encoding). The scene was re-presented (Test) with 1) local objects missing and 2) one of the anchors shifted (Shift) or not (No shift). Participants, then, saw a floating local object (target), which they grabbed and placed back on the shelf in its remembered position (Response). Eye-tracking data revealed that both local objects and anchors were fixated, with preference for local objects. Additionally, anchors guided allocentric coding of local objects, despite being task-irrelevant. Overall, anchors implicitly influence spatial coding of local object locations for memory-guided actions within naturalistic (virtual) environments.
与环境中的物体交互需要确定它们的位置，通常是相对于周围的物体（即，以自我为中心）。根据场景语法框架，这些通常较小、局部的物体在场景中是可移动的，并代表场景层次结构的最低级别。场景语法的更高层次如何影响记忆引导动作的以自我为中心的编码？在这里，我们专注于大而不可移动的物体（锚点）对局部物体位置编码的影响。在虚拟现实研究中，参与者（n=30）观看了四个可能场景中的一个（两个厨房或两个浴室），两个锚点通过架子连接，架子上呈现了三个局部物体（与一个锚点一致）（编码）。场景（Test）重新呈现，1）缺少局部物体，2）一个锚点移位（Shift）或不移位（No shift）。然后，参与者看到一个漂浮的局部物体（目标），他们抓住并将其放回架子上的记忆位置（Response）。眼动追踪数据显示，局部物体和锚点都被注视，并且偏好局部物体。此外，尽管锚点与任务无关，但它们指导了局部物体的以自我为中心的编码。总体而言，锚点在自然（虚拟）环境中对记忆引导动作的局部物体位置的空间编码产生了隐含的影响。
