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Updated: Sep 28, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
Learning directions of objects specified by vision, spatial audition, or auditory spatial language
Roberta L Klatzky1, Yvonne Lippa, Jack M Loomis
1Department of Psychology, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA. klatzky@cmu.edu
Abstract:
The modality by which object azimuths (directions) are presented affects learning of multiple locations. In Experiment 1, participants learned sets of three and five object azimuths specified by a visual virtual environment, spatial audition (3D sound), or auditory spatial language. Five azimuths were learned faster when specified by spatial modalities (vision, audition) than by language. Experiment 2 equated the modalities for proprioceptive cues and eliminated spatial cues unique to vision (optic flow) and audition (differential binaural signals). There remained a learning disadvantage for spatial language. We attribute this result to the cost of indirect processing from words to spatial representations.
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