Multi-perspective spatial memory representation in the presence of others

In order to better adapt to spatial environments, individuals often establish a spatial frame of reference system to represent objects and their positions within a scene. This study utilized a partial scene recognition paradigm across three experiments (n = 91, 45 men, 46 women) to investigate egocentric spatial memory representation in the presence of others, as well as the conditions that facilitate individuals’ spatial memory representation from the perspectives of others. The aim of Experiment 1 (Exp. 1) was to investigate how people formed the egocentric memory representation in the absence of another person’s perspective. Exp. 2 studied whether the perspective that participants chose to represent the spatial scene changed when there was another person. Exp. 3 was based on Exp. 2, and further explored the role of one-way verbal cues initiated by others in promoting the memory representation of spatial scenes from others’ perspectives. The results indicated that when participants learned the scene alone, they represented the spatial layout solely from their own perspective. This representation did not change significantly with the mere presence of another person. However, when an assistant described the scene from her perspective, participants showed a recognition advantage for both perspectives. This suggest that the mere presence of others did not influence individuals’ egocentric memory representation, but that one-way verbal cues provided by others promoted individuals’ multi-perspective spatial memory representation.