Editing Spatial memory (section)

==Virtual reality==
During a 2006 study, researchers designed three different virtual towns, each of which had its own "unique road layout and a unique set of five stores."<ref name = "Newman et al., 2006"/> However, the overall footprint of the different maps was exactly the same size, 80 sq. units. In this experiment, participants had to partake in two different sets of trials.

A study conducted at the University of Maryland compared the effect of different levels of immersion on spatial memory recall.<ref name="EKrokos">{{Cite journal |last1=Krokos|first1=Eric|last2=Plaisant|first2=Catherine|last3=Varshney|first3=Amitabh |date=16 May 2018|title=Virtual Memory Palaces: Immersion Aids Recall|journal=Virtual Reality|volume=23|pages=1–15 |doi=10.1007/s10055-018-0346-3|doi-access=free}}</ref> In the study, 40 participants used both a traditional desktop and a head-mounted display to view two environments, a medieval town, and an ornate palace, where they memorized two sets of 21 faces presented as 3D portraits. After viewing these 21 faces for 5 minutes, followed by a brief rest period, the faces in the virtual environments were replaced with numbers, and participants recalled which face was at each location. The study found on average, those who used the head-mounted display recalled the faces 8.8% more accurately, and with a greater confidence. The participants state that leveraging their innate vestibular and proprioceptive senses with the head-mounted display and mapping aspects of the environment relative to their body, elements that are absent with the desktop, was key to their success.

===Spatial expertise===
Within the literature, there is evidence that experts in a particular field are able to perform memory tasks in accordance with their skills at an exceptional level.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" /> The level of skill displayed by experts may exceed the limits of the normal capacity of both STM and WM.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" /> Because experts have an enormous amount of prelearned and task-specific knowledge, they may be able to [[Encoding (memory)|encode]] information in a more efficient way.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" />

An interesting study investigating [[Taxicab|taxi]] drivers' memory for streets in [[Helsinki]], [[Finland]], examined the role of prelearned spatial knowledge.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" /> This study compared experts to a control group to determine how this prelearned knowledge in their skill domain allows them to overcome the capacity limitations of STM and WM.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" /> The study used four levels of spatial randomness:
* Route Order – spatially continuous route<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" />
* Route Random – spatially continuous list presented randomly<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" />
* Map Order – street names forming a straight line on the map, but omitting intermediate streets<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" />
* Map Random – streets on map presented in random order<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" />

[[File:Cabs.jpg|thumb|Yellow taxi cabs in New York city]]

The results of this study indicate that the taxi drivers' (experts') recall of streets was higher in both the route order condition and the map order condition than in the two random conditions.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" /> This indicates that the experts were able to use their prelearned spatial knowledge to organize the information in such a way that they surpassed STM and WM capacity limitations.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" /> The organization strategy that the drivers employed is known as [[Chunking (psychology)|chunking]].<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" /> Additionally, the comments made by the experts during the procedure point towards their use of route knowledge in completing the task.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" /> To ensure that it was in fact spatial information that they were encoding, the researchers also presented lists in alphabetical order and [[Semantics|semantic]] categories.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" /> However, the researchers found that it was in fact spatial information that the experts were chunking, allowing them to surpass the limitations of both visuo-spatial STM and WM.<ref name = "Kalakoski & Saariluoma" />

===Animal research===
Certain species of [[Tit (bird)|paridae]] and [[corvidae]] (such as the [[black-capped chickadee]] and the [[Aphelocoma|scrub jay]]) are able to use spatial memory to remember where, when and what type of food they have cached.<ref name = "Bird">{{cite journal | last1 = Bird | first1 = L. R. | last2 = Roberts | first2 = W. A. | last3 = Abroms | first3 = B. | last4 = Kit | first4 = K. A. | last5 = Crupi | first5 = C. | year = 2003 | title = Spatial memory for food hidden by rats (''Rattus norvegicus'') on the radial maze: studies of memory for where, what, and when | journal = Journal of Comparative Psychology | volume = 117 | issue = 2| pages = 176–187 | doi = 10.1037/0735-7036.117.2.176 | pmid = 12856788 }}</ref> Studies on rats and squirrels have also suggested that they are able to use spatial memory to locate previously hidden food.<ref name = "Bird" /> Experiments using the radial maze have allowed researchers to control for a number of variables, such as the type of food hidden, the locations where the food is hidden, the retention interval, as well as any odor cues that could skew results of memory research.<ref name = "Bird" /> Studies have indicated that rats have memory for where they have hidden food and what type of food they have hidden.<ref name = "Bird" /> This is shown in retrieval behavior, such that the rats are selective in going more often to the arms of the maze where they have previously hidden preferred food than to arms with less preferred food or where no food was hidden.<ref name = "Bird" />

The evidence for the spatial memory of some species of animals, such as rats, indicates that they do use spatial memory to locate and retrieve hidden food stores.<ref name = "Bird" />

A study using [[GPS tracking]] to see where [[domestic cats]] go when their owners let them outside reported that cats have substantial spatial memory. Some of the cats in the study demonstrated exceptional long term spatial memory. One of them, usually traveling no further than {{convert|200|m|ft|abbr=on}} to {{convert|250|m|ft|abbr=on}} from its home, unexpectedly traveled some {{convert|1250|m|ft|abbr=on}} from its home. Researchers initially thought this to be a GPS malfunction, but soon discovered that the cat's owners went out of town that weekend, and that the house the cat went to was the owner's old house. The owners and the cat had not lived in that house for well over a year.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140807-cat-tracker-pets-animals-science-gps/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810080737/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140807-cat-tracker-pets-animals-science-gps/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=August 10, 2014 | title=Watch: How Far Do Your Cats Roam? | date=August 8, 2014 | access-date=August 23, 2016 | author=Jennifer S. Holland | work=National Geographic}}</ref>