Can spatial orientation be modified by training?

    Publikation: Beitrag in Buch/Bericht/KonferenzbandKonferenzbeitrag - Abstract in KonferenzbandForschungBegutachtung

    Abstract

    Spatial orientation is an important prerequisite for perception and action. On Earth, spatial ori-entation is provided by three reference frames: gravity, visual objects with intrinsic orientation (e.g. houses, trees) and the own body’s longitudinal axis. The absence or incongruence of reference frames (e.g., in tilted body postures, underwater or during spaceflight) might challenge spatial orien-tation and thus lead to performance errors with potentially negative impact. While earlier research explicitly instructed participants to orient by gravity and evaluated their perceptual orientation, we now refrain from such specific instructions to and evaluate both their perceptual and their behavioral orientation.
    Twenty-six participants (13 male, 13 female; 20.7 ± 1.7 years) were brought into six angles of clockwise roll tilt (60°, 75°, 90° = supine, 105°, 120°, 135°) while they were strapped on a padded plate. The visual reference frame was eliminated by occlusion. At each tilt angle, participants (a) ad-justed the roll angle of a tree presented in their frontal plane until “…leaves are at the top and roots are at the bottom”, and they (b) pushed an isometric joystick “down”. Subsequently, participants practiced for 6 minutes (overall) a game in which a ball had to fall down through a vertical labyrinth by force of gravity. Practice occurred in the same six angles (each three times) of body tilt as the above testing. Finally, the tree and joystick tests were repeated, again in the same six angles of body tilt.
    Before training, participants’ responses on the joystick task matched the direction of gravity more closely than the egocentric direction while their responses on the tree task were mid-between the two directions. The two data sets differed significantly. After training, responses on the joystick task matched the direction of gravity almost perfectly while responses on the tree task didn’t change. The observed training-induced change on the joystick task was not limited to a subset of “sensitive” participants.
    We conclude that the preferred reference frame for perception and for action may be different, and that it may be differently influenced by training. Thus, earlier research about perceptual orienta-tion in tilted positions, under water and during spaceflight may tell us little about spatially oriented behavior under those conditions.
    Supported by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (50WB1425)
    OriginalspracheEnglisch
    TitelHuman Physiology Workshop
    Seitenumfang1
    Herausgeber (Verlag)Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)
    Erscheinungsdatum2016
    PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2016
    VeranstaltungGerman Human Physiology Workshop 2016 - Köln, Deutschland
    Dauer: 10.12.201610.12.2016
    Konferenznummer: 1

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