When environmental information is conveyed using descriptions: The role of perspectives and strategies

Verbally-conveyed spatial information can typically adopt a survey or a route perspective (i.e. a map view or a personal point of view, respectively). This paper examines the role of spontaneous strategy use in learning from survey and route descriptions (Study 1), and the effect of practicing with route and survey strategies on route description learning (Study 2). In Study 1, participants listened to route or survey spatial descriptions. In Study 2, three groups listened to route description before and after practicing with the use of a survey strategy, a route strategy, or without practicing with any strategy (Survey practice, Route practice, Control groups respectively). In both studies, after listening to each description, participants reported on their strategy use and answered true/false survey and route questions. The results of Study 1 showed a greater accuracy for descriptions conveyed from the same perspective as the one learnt, and survey descriptions elicited a greater use of survey strategies. The results of Study 2 showed that the group which had practiced with a survey strategy were more accurate for survey descriptions, and reported a greater use of the survey strategy than other strategies, or than the other groups. The results are discussed to expand on the spatial cognition framework and its implications.