UPDATING AFTER ROTATIONAL AND TRANSLATIONAL BODY MOVEMENTS - COORDINATE STRUCTURE OF PERSPECTIVE SPACE

As people move through an environment, they typically change both thei r heading and their location relative to the surrounds. During such ch anges, people update their changing orientations with respect to surro unding objects. People can also update after only imagining such typic al movements, but not as quickly or accurately as after actual movemen t. In the present study, blindfolded subjects pointed to objects after real and imagined walks. The role of rotational and translational com ponents of movement were contrasted. The difficulty of imagined updati ng was found to be due to imagined rotation and not to imagined transl ation; updating after the latter was just as quick and accurate as upd ating after actual rotations and translations. Implications for unders tanding primary spatial orientation, the organization of spatial knowl edge, and spatial-imagination processes are discussed.