Heading south with a north-up map: A choice processing analysis of map alignment effects

摘要

This study employed an information accumulation model of choice reaction times to investigate alignment effects in mental representations of maps. University students studied a map from a single orientation (with north at the top). In a subsequent two-choice reaction time task, the students' spatial knowledge of the map was assessed employing spatial left/right judgments, which were made from imagined perspectives that were either north-aligned or south-aligned. Data showed a standard alignment effect, favoring north-over south-aligned trials. To examine the locus of this effect, data were fit using the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model of speeded decisions (Brown & Heathcote, 2008). Of interest were three model parameters: drift rate, the speed at which evidence accumulates toward a response; response threshold, the amount of evidence demanded from the decision maker before selecting a response; and non-decision time, the time consumed by pre- and postdecisional processes. The best-fitting model suggested that non-decision time accounted for the alignment effect. The difference in non-decision time between north and south-aligned judgments suggests a mental alignment stage on south-aligned trials, accounting for the longer reaction times for judgements misaligned with the presented north orientation of the map.