Cognitive mapping in mental time travel and mental space navigation

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology

Background:

• The brain generates cognitive maps enabling mental time travel (MTT) and mental space navigation (MSN), independent of the present experience.
• Understanding the shared and distinct cognitive operations between MTT and MSN is crucial for cognitive mapping research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the extent to which Mental Time Travel (MTT) and Mental Space Navigation (MSN) share cognitive operations.
• To determine if self-projection in time and space relies on similar mapping and transformation processes.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted where participants judged the ordinality of historical events in time and space from different mental perspectives.
• Reaction Times (RT) and Error Rates (ER) were used to quantify symbolic distance effects in both temporal and spatial dimensions.
• Participants mentally projected themselves to specific future locations and times to make judgments.

Main Results:

• Absolute distance effects were observed: participants were slower and less accurate when self-projected.
• Relative distance effects indicated faster and more accurate performance when spatial and temporal distances were greater from the mental viewpoint.
• Competition between temporal and spatial mapping occurred when self-projection was in one dimension and judgments were in another.

Conclusions:

• MTT and MSN necessitate egocentric mapping and map transformations, supporting the role of cognitive maps in these abilities.
• Findings suggest that MTT and MSN are separately mapped neural processes.
• Both MTT and MSN require comparable transformations from allocentric to egocentric reference frames.