Age differences in spatial navigation stem from a preference for familiar routes rather than impaired landmark-dependent strategies.

IF 3.5 1区 心理学 Q1 GERONTOLOGY
Paul F Hill, Skyelynn Bermudez, Joshua D Garren, Andrew S McAvan, Jingyi Zheng, Carol A Barnes, Arne D Ekstrom
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Abstract

A leading hypothesis in the field of aging and navigation is that older adults are selectively impaired on tasks that require allocentric (landmark-based) strategies to navigate, resulting in a shift toward more egocentric (self-based) strategies. However, most evidence in humans comes from studies that restrict body-based sensorimotor cues that are essential to both egocentric and allocentric navigation. In the present study, young and older adults navigated a virtual environment in each of two conditions: a stationary desktop condition that relied on visual input and an immersive condition that enabled unrestricted ambulation and sensorimotor feedback during navigation. Both age groups performed worse when initially learning locations from novel compared with familiar locations-often considered a hallmark of allocentric navigation. The cost of switching from familiar to novel start locations was equal between age groups, pointing to a null effect of age on allocentric strategies. Older adults also employed distal landmarks to a comparable extent to young adults, suggesting that landmark-dependent strategies did not differ by age. However, older adults were more likely to replicate previously taken paths, potentially indicative of a preference for egocentric strategies. The path replication effect was significantly attenuated in the immersive condition, particularly in the presence of geometric boundary cues that could be used to infer distance. Age differences in spatial navigation may therefore be driven in part by a selective bias for navigating familiar routes, although these differences were lessened in the presence of multimodal visual and sensorimotor cues. The present study highlights that navigation is a complex cognitive construct that draws on multiple parallel systems and strategies that cannot be easily explained by a simple allocentric-egocentric dichotomy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

空间导航的年龄差异源于对熟悉路线的偏好,而不是受损的地标依赖策略。
老龄化和导航领域的一个主要假设是,老年人在需要非中心(基于地标的)导航策略的任务上有选择性地受损,导致他们转向更以自我为中心(基于自我的)策略。然而,大多数关于人类的证据来自于限制基于身体的感觉运动线索的研究,这些线索对于自我中心和非中心导航都是必不可少的。在目前的研究中,年轻人和老年人在两种条件下导航虚拟环境:一种是依靠视觉输入的固定桌面条件,另一种是在导航过程中允许不受限制的行走和感觉运动反馈的沉浸式条件。与熟悉的位置相比,这两个年龄段的人在刚开始学习新位置时的表现都更差——这通常被认为是异心导航的标志。从熟悉的起始地点切换到新的起始地点的成本在年龄组之间是相等的,这表明年龄对非中心策略没有影响。老年人也使用远端地标的程度与年轻人相当,这表明地标依赖策略不因年龄而异。然而,老年人更有可能重复以前走过的道路,这可能表明他们更喜欢以自我为中心的策略。在沉浸状态下,路径复制效应显著减弱,特别是在存在可用于推断距离的几何边界线索的情况下。因此,空间导航的年龄差异可能部分是由导航熟悉路线的选择性偏见所驱动的,尽管这些差异在多模态视觉和感觉运动提示的存在下会减少。目前的研究强调,导航是一个复杂的认知结构,它利用了多个并行系统和策略,不能轻易地用简单的异中心-自我中心二分法来解释。(PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA,版权所有)。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
6.40
自引率
10.80%
发文量
97
期刊介绍: Psychology and Aging publishes original articles on adult development and aging. Such original articles include reports of research that may be applied, biobehavioral, clinical, educational, experimental (laboratory, field, or naturalistic studies), methodological, or psychosocial. Although the emphasis is on original research investigations, occasional theoretical analyses of research issues, practical clinical problems, or policy may appear, as well as critical reviews of a content area in adult development and aging. Clinical case studies that have theoretical significance are also appropriate. Brief reports are acceptable with the author"s agreement not to submit a full report to another journal.
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