Reorienting in images of a three-dimensional environment

Adult humans searched for a hidden goal in images depicting 3-dimensional rooms. Images contained either featural cues, geometric cues, or both, which could be used to determine the correct location of the goal. In Experiment 1, participants learned to use featural and geometric information equally well. However, men and women showed significant differences in their use of distant featural cues and the spontaneous encoding of geometric information when trained with features present. Transformation tests showed that participants could use either the color or the shape of the features independently to locate the goal. Experiment 2 showed that participants could use either configural or surface geometry when searching for the goal. However, their weighing of these geometric cues was dependent on initial training experience.