Neither by Global nor Local Cues Alone: Evidence for a Unified Orientation Process

A substantial amount of empirical and theoretical debate remains concerning the extent to which an ability to orient with respect to the environment is determined by global (i.e., principal axis), local (i.e., wall lengths, angles), and/or view-based (i.e., stored representation) accounts. We developed an orientation task that allowed the manipulation of the reliability of the principal axis of space between groups while maintaining goal distance from the principal axis, local cues specifying the goal location, and visual aspects of the goal location consistent across groups. Control and test trials revealed that participants trained with a reliable principal axis of space utilized both global and local geometric cues whereas those trained with an unreliable principal axis of space utilized only local geometric cues. Results suggest that both global and local geometric cues are utilized for reorientation and that the reliability of the principal axis of an enclosure differentially influences the use of geometric cues. Such results have implications for theoretical accounts of geometry learning and provide evidence for a unified orientation process.