Comparing Distances in Mental Images Constructed from Visual Experience or Verbal Descriptions: The Impact of Survey versus Route Perspective

Abstract

Mental images constructed after visual examination of a spatial configuration or after processing a verbal description of that configuration have been shown to share similar properties, in particular the capacity to preserve metric information contained in the configuration represented. In the present study, we investigated the properties of mental images constructed under learning conditions resulting from the combination of a visual or a verbal mode of acquisition and a survey or route perspective. Participants memorized a virtual environment (a garden containing six objects) under one of four learning conditions: (a) viewing a map of the garden (visual–survey); (b) viewing a video presentation of a journey along the path around the garden (visual–route); (c) listening to a verbal description of the map of the garden (verbal–survey); and (d) listening to a verbal description of the journey around the garden (verbal–route). The participants were then invited to compare the distances separating objects in the garden mentally. Experiment 1, where the pairs of distances to be compared had a common starting point, revealed that the frequency of correct responses was higher, and response times were shorter when participants had learned about the environment visually rather than by a verbal description. The conditions involving a survey perspective resulted in a higher frequency of correct responses and shorter response times than those involving a route perspective. Lastly, a symbolic distance effect was obtained in the first three conditions, in that the greater the difference between the two distances being compared, the higher the frequency of correct responses, and the shorter the response times. Experiment 2, where the pairs of distances had different starting points, replicated these results, although longer response times revealed that the comparison process was more costly. Taken together, these findings support the view that mental spatial representations derived from different sources and adopting different perspectives contain genuine metric properties, except when the verbal modality and the route perspective are combined during learning.