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Updated: May 16, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
Spontaneous object recognition memory is maintained following transformation of global geometric properties
Steven L Poulter1, Yutaka Kosaki, Alexander Easton
1Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom. steven.poulter@durham.ac.uk
None:
Studies of spontaneous behavior to assess memory are widespread, but often the relationships of objects to contexts and spatial locations are poorly defined. We examined whether object-location memory was maintained following global, but not local, changes to the geometric shape of an arena. Rats explored two trial-unique objects in a distinctively shaped arena before being exposed to two identical copies of one of these objects in a different shape in a different physical location. Rats preferentially explored objects that were novel in relation to their local geometric context rather than identifying both locations as novel in the global geometric context.
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