Abstract
Two experiments are reported which investigated the understanding and remembering of simple descriptions of spatial layouts. In the first experiment judgements were made regarding the relationship between spatial relations in stated sentences, paraphrases and inferences. Paraphrases and stated sentences were verified equally fast but could be discriminated in a forced choice recognition test. Information about the surface structure of the text was clearly retained. In the second experiment, spatial layouts learned from the same descriptions had to be remembered and mentally transformed by imagining or by performing body movements. When retrieving the original configuration, some participants could only report the stated relations but not the inferred relations. The transformation could be equally applied to all spatial relations. There was also a gender effect in the mental transformation task: Women improved their performance with executed body movements whereas men’s performance was impaired under this condition compared to the standard mental transformation task.
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Wagener-Wender, M. (2002). Memory for Text and Memory for Space. In: Coventry, K.R., Olivier, P. (eds) Spatial Language. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9928-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9928-3_13
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