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Spatial knowledge of geographical globes: Evidence of vertical alignment effects
Author(s) -
Tlauka Michael,
Drummond Aaron,
Leffers Jason
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1348/000712607x245439
Subject(s) - globe , task (project management) , psychology , horizontal and vertical , digging , cognitive psychology , right hemisphere , geodesy , geography , neuroscience , management , archaeology , economics
This study investigated human spatial memory of geographical globes. In two experiments, participants studied locations presented on a three‐dimensional globe. Subsequently, participants' knowledge of the locations was tested employing two types of pointing task. Directional judgments from imagined locations on the globe were performed either vertically through the ground (as if digging a straight tunnel between the locations) or horizontally along the surface of the globe (the shortest distance for an aircraft to fly to a given destination). In the vertical pointing task, judgments originating from imagined locations in the upper hemisphere were superior by comparison with those originating from imagined locations in the lower hemisphere. Performance in the horizontal pointing task was more variable, with a tendency for superior judgments originating from imagined locations in the lower hemisphere. The results provide evidence of a novel alignment effect involving vertical judgments.