Orientation in Trapezoid-Shaped Enclosures: Implications for Theoretical Accounts of Geometry Learning

Participants learned to select one of four distinctively marked corners in a rectangular virtual enclosure. After training, control and test trials were interspersed with training trials. On control and test trials, all markers were equivalent in color, but only during test trials was the shape of the enclosure manipulated. For each test trial, a single long wall or short wall of the enclosure was increased to be twice as long as or was decreased to be half as long as that present in the training enclosure. These manipulations produced eight trapezoid-shaped enclosures. Participants selected one corner during control and test trials. Performance during control trials revealed that participants selected the correct and rotationally equivalent locations. Performance during test trials revealed that participants selected locations in trapezoid-shaped enclosures that were consistent with those predicted by global geometry (i.e., principal axis of space) but inconsistent with those predicted by local geometry (i.e., number of training features present at a location).