Spring Break
Blindfolded navigation: as hard as you'd think
Issue date: 9/13/07
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Imagine walking into your new dorm room or apartment for the first time. You need to quickly figure out where everything is located - desk, Ethernet jack, telephone, sink - so you'll be able to find them later once you've moved in your truckload of stuff.
What is the best way to locate and memorize the plan of your new room? You could wander around aimlessly for an hour or so, searching for things as they come to mind and finding them in random spots all over the room. We'll call that the freshman model.
You could also take a quick but methodical circuit through the apartment, along the wall from the door to the bed to the bathroom and back again. We'll call this the upperclassman model.
Even if you're not a total neat freak, you'll probably appreciate that the upperclassman model is easier and more efficient than the freshman model. It turns out your brain agrees, but in a surprising way.
Naohide Yamamoto and Amy Shelton of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences on Homewood campus put together a study in which undergraduates were asked to learn the locations of several objects in a room. The study appears in the July 2007 issue of Acta Psychologica.
Each participant learned two layouts, one in which the objects were presented along a specific, logical path, and one in which they were presented in a random manner around the room.
For one of the two layouts, assigned randomly, the volunteer learned the location of objects visually. In the other, the volunteer was blindfolded and physically walked through the room while being instructed on the position of each object. This second condition was meant to test proprioceptive learning.
Proprioception is the body's sense of its position in three-dimensional space. It is guided by receptors located within muscles and joints which constantly update the brain with a map of the body. Proprioceptive learning is thought to be independent of visual learning, although in every day life the two (along with the sense of balance) work closely together to orient and position the body in real time.
What is the best way to locate and memorize the plan of your new room? You could wander around aimlessly for an hour or so, searching for things as they come to mind and finding them in random spots all over the room. We'll call that the freshman model.
You could also take a quick but methodical circuit through the apartment, along the wall from the door to the bed to the bathroom and back again. We'll call this the upperclassman model.
Even if you're not a total neat freak, you'll probably appreciate that the upperclassman model is easier and more efficient than the freshman model. It turns out your brain agrees, but in a surprising way.
Naohide Yamamoto and Amy Shelton of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences on Homewood campus put together a study in which undergraduates were asked to learn the locations of several objects in a room. The study appears in the July 2007 issue of Acta Psychologica.
Each participant learned two layouts, one in which the objects were presented along a specific, logical path, and one in which they were presented in a random manner around the room.
For one of the two layouts, assigned randomly, the volunteer learned the location of objects visually. In the other, the volunteer was blindfolded and physically walked through the room while being instructed on the position of each object. This second condition was meant to test proprioceptive learning.
Proprioception is the body's sense of its position in three-dimensional space. It is guided by receptors located within muscles and joints which constantly update the brain with a map of the body. Proprioceptive learning is thought to be independent of visual learning, although in every day life the two (along with the sense of balance) work closely together to orient and position the body in real time.
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