Acta Psychologica Sinica

Abstract

Franklin and Tversky (1990) reported that people accessed different directions according to the pattern as left = right = front < back (egocentric framework effect), when they searched the objects in front of, at the back, to the left, to the right in an imagined environment described with text. Mou, Yang and Zhang (1999) reported that there was relative location effect as well as egocentric framework effect, in searching imagined environment, the paradigm proposed by Franklin and Tversky (1990). The relative location effect was reported as the one that the relative locations of goal objects to focus object affected the RT in searching objects according to the pattern of same < opposite < next to clockwise = next to counterclockwise. In this study, we wanted to test the hypothesis that relative location effect was independent of the egocentric framework effect. Using spatial arrows as probes, we removed the egocentric framework effect, which was believed to be caused in apprehending the egocentric spatial terms. Manipulating the relative locations between the focal objects and the probed objects, we tested the relative location effect. Two main results were found: (1) Different directions indicated with the arrows affected the RT in searching objects according to the pattern of left = right = front < back. It supported that we successfully removed the egocentric framework effect by using spatial arrows as probes since this pattern is different from the egocentric framework effect (Franklin and Tversky, 1990; Mou et al., 1999). (2) The relative locations from the goal objects to the focal objects affected the RT in searching objects according to the pattern of same < opposite < next to clockwise = next to counterclockwise. It supported that relative location effect appeared independent of the egocentric spatial effect. Together with the result of Mou, Yang and Zhang (1999), the results supported that there were two cognitive stages in searching objects in imagined environment: one was the process of apprehending egocentric spatial term. The other was the process of retrieving the probed objects. In the former process, egocentric framework effect appeared since the egocentric reference frame was involved in apprehending the egocentric spatial terms. In the latter process, relative location effect appeared since the relative location from the probed objects to the focal objects determined the speed of retrieving the probed objects.

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