Working Mental Representations of the Environment

Abstract

Performance on a direct distance estimation task in a large, complex environment was studied as a function of variation in some members of the set of test locations. Features of the multidimensional scaling solutions-along with effects on the imagery that subjects reported experiencing while engaged in the spatial task-support the notion that a working representation is constructed for the solution of a spatial problem. It is hypothesized that this construction draws selectively upon various mental representations of the environment available in long-term store, depending on the way the task is structured. Subjects who were highly familiar with the environment reported more abstract and less scenographic imagery than less-experienced subjects and were superior in their sensitivity to distance variation.