Announcing the Final Examination of Rhyse Bendell for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Psychology – Human Factors and Cognitive Psychology
This research examined the processes involved when one is acquiring spatial knowledge while traversing an environment, integrating that knowledge into mental representations, and subsequently relying on that knowledge to successfully perform wayfinding. Extant research paradigms have struggled to control the provision of spatial knowledge acquisition opportunities during participant training, and have also rarely accomplished the measurement of spatial knowledge to dissociate participants’ acquisition of point and route related knowledge. Further, previous research has not specified the processes by which those disparate pieces of knowledge interact to form holistic mental maps. The experiments reported in this manuscript addressed drawbacks in existing research by manipulating opportunities for the acquisition of point and route knowledge, and by testing participants’ capacity to integrate and operate based on their acquired knowledge in the context of environmental affordances. A key element of the conducted studies was the capturing of individual differences in sex and spatial ability to investigate their impacts in the context of manipulated variables. Participants in the proposed studies underwent environmental training exposures targeted at providing a) primarily point knowledge or b) route knowledge acquisition, and they also completed a set of knowledge measures tapping point, route, and configuration knowledge. Finally, participants completed tests of wayfinding capacity to demonstrate their ability to rely on integrated mental maps for successful wayfinding. Results of the two conducted studies demonstrate that individual differences, training modalities, and environment features have complex effects on spatial cognition and that no one factor predominantly determines individuals’ ability to acquire, integrate, or employ spatial knowledge. That overarching finding as well as many of the individual effects that were uncovered provide insight into the nature of spatial cognition as well as the process of acquiring and integrating point-related and route-related knowledge that has been widely assumed to occur but rarely examined.
Committee in Charge
Committee Chair: Dr. Florian Jentsch, Psychology, University of Central Florida
Department Committee Member: Dr. Mark Neider, Psychology, University of Central Florida
Department Committee Member: Dr. Valerie Sim, Psychology, University of Central Florida
Outside Committee Member: Dr. Joseph Kider, School of Modeling Simulation and Training, University of Central Florida
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