Abstract:
Spatial cognition enables humans to remember, imagine, and navigate their
environments by integrating sensory input, spatial representations, and memory.
A key feature of spatial memory is its dependency on viewpoint and
position: mental representations of space are not static but are dynamically
reconstructed depending on the observer’s location, orientation, and imagined
perspective. This thesis investigates the phenomenon of position-dependent
recall — the idea that spatial recall varies systematically with the observer’s
physical or simulated position and heading — across two complementary experimental
paradigms.
In the first study, participants engaged in a novel immersive sketching
task in virtual reality (VR). While immersed in a VR simulation of familiar
urban locations, they were asked to draw sketch maps of spatially remote but
well-known places. The study examined how body orientation and simulated
viewpoint influenced recall orientation, and whether position-dependent effects
persisted after participants exited the virtual environment.
In the second study, participants performed a free recall task while situated
at specific virtual starting positions and orientations. Without drawing
or external spatial aids, they verbally listed familiar locations from memory.
This experiment tested whether recall was influenced by the simulated viewpoint
and whether retrieval sequences exhibited systematic spatial progression,
reflecting dynamic organization of spatial memory based on proximity, familiarity,
and imagined perspective.
Together, these experiments provide evidence that spatial recall is shaped
by both egocentric (viewpoint-based) and allocentric (map-based) reference
frames, and that immersive VR constitutes a valid methodological tool for
investigating these processes. By combining controlled virtual environments
with natural recall behavior, this thesis advances our understanding of how
spatial memories are organized, accessed, and influenced by bodily orientation
and imagined perspective.
