Moving through imagined space: Mentally simulating locomotion during spatial description reading.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Auditory Perception
• Spatial Cognition

Background:

• Readers mentally simulate environments described in text, engaging perceptual and motoric elements.
• Auditory information's role in these embodied simulations, particularly movement sounds, is under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how auditory cues, specifically movement sounds and metronome pulses, affect reading speed and spatial memory.
• To differentiate the effects of auditory stimuli on reading route versus survey spatial descriptions.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted using walking/running sounds and fast/slow metronome pulses.
• Participants read route (first-person perspective) and survey (aerial perspective) descriptions.
• Reading speed, memory recall, and spatial inference tasks were employed.

Main Results:

• Reading speed for route descriptions was modulated by both movement and metronome sounds (faster with faster sounds).
• Survey description reading speed was only affected by metronome pulses.
• Movement sounds influenced perceived distance, increasing estimates of environmental scale after running sounds.

Conclusions:

• Readers simulate journeys through described environments, and auditory information can guide these simulations and spatial memories.
• Route descriptions are more susceptible to auditory modulation, suggesting a stronger embodied simulation process.
• Auditory cues play a significant role in shaping our spatial understanding and memory derived from text.