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Symmetry and spatial ability enhance change detection in visuospatial structures

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) domains require people to recognize and transform complex visuospatial displays that appear to vastly exceed the limits of visuospatial working memory. Here, we consider possible domain-general mechanisms that may explain this advantage: capit...

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Autores principales: He, Chuanxiuyue, Rathbun, Zoe, Buonauro, Daniel, Meyerhoff, Hauke S., Franconeri, Steven L., Stieff, Mike, Hegarty, Mary
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9365739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35705852
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01332-z
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author He, Chuanxiuyue
Rathbun, Zoe
Buonauro, Daniel
Meyerhoff, Hauke S.
Franconeri, Steven L.
Stieff, Mike
Hegarty, Mary
author_facet He, Chuanxiuyue
Rathbun, Zoe
Buonauro, Daniel
Meyerhoff, Hauke S.
Franconeri, Steven L.
Stieff, Mike
Hegarty, Mary
author_sort He, Chuanxiuyue
collection PubMed
description Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) domains require people to recognize and transform complex visuospatial displays that appear to vastly exceed the limits of visuospatial working memory. Here, we consider possible domain-general mechanisms that may explain this advantage: capitalizing on symmetry, a structural regularity that can produce more efficient representations. Participants briefly viewed a structure made up of three-dimensional connected cubes of different colors, which was either asymmetrical or symmetrical. After a short delay, they were asked to detect a change (colors swapping positions) within a rotated second view. In change trials, the second display always had an asymmetrical structure. The presence of symmetry in the initial view improved change detection, and performance also declined with angular disparity of the encoding and test displays. People with higher spatial ability performed better on the change-detection task, but there was no evidence that they were better at leveraging symmetry than low-spatial individuals. The results suggest that leveraging symmetrical structures can help people of all ability levels exceed typical working memory limits by constructing more efficient representations and substituting resource-demanding mental rotation operations with alternative orientation-independent strategies. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/s13421-022-01332-z.
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spelling pubmed-93657392022-08-12 Symmetry and spatial ability enhance change detection in visuospatial structures He, Chuanxiuyue Rathbun, Zoe Buonauro, Daniel Meyerhoff, Hauke S. Franconeri, Steven L. Stieff, Mike Hegarty, Mary Mem Cognit Article Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) domains require people to recognize and transform complex visuospatial displays that appear to vastly exceed the limits of visuospatial working memory. Here, we consider possible domain-general mechanisms that may explain this advantage: capitalizing on symmetry, a structural regularity that can produce more efficient representations. Participants briefly viewed a structure made up of three-dimensional connected cubes of different colors, which was either asymmetrical or symmetrical. After a short delay, they were asked to detect a change (colors swapping positions) within a rotated second view. In change trials, the second display always had an asymmetrical structure. The presence of symmetry in the initial view improved change detection, and performance also declined with angular disparity of the encoding and test displays. People with higher spatial ability performed better on the change-detection task, but there was no evidence that they were better at leveraging symmetry than low-spatial individuals. The results suggest that leveraging symmetrical structures can help people of all ability levels exceed typical working memory limits by constructing more efficient representations and substituting resource-demanding mental rotation operations with alternative orientation-independent strategies. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.3758/s13421-022-01332-z. Springer US 2022-06-15 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9365739/ /pubmed/35705852 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01332-z Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
He, Chuanxiuyue
Rathbun, Zoe
Buonauro, Daniel
Meyerhoff, Hauke S.
Franconeri, Steven L.
Stieff, Mike
Hegarty, Mary
Symmetry and spatial ability enhance change detection in visuospatial structures
title Symmetry and spatial ability enhance change detection in visuospatial structures
title_full Symmetry and spatial ability enhance change detection in visuospatial structures
title_fullStr Symmetry and spatial ability enhance change detection in visuospatial structures
title_full_unstemmed Symmetry and spatial ability enhance change detection in visuospatial structures
title_short Symmetry and spatial ability enhance change detection in visuospatial structures
title_sort symmetry and spatial ability enhance change detection in visuospatial structures
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9365739/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35705852
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01332-z
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