Research

In my dissertation research, I used real and virtual reality (VR) methods to study individual differences (age and motor experience) in motor vs. visual reliance in spatial updating. I assessed virtual locomotion methods and considered individual differences in the effectiveness of those methods for spatial updating accuracy.

This project was a National Institute of Health funded project that is a collaboration with Sarah Creem-Regehr and computer scientists at the University of Utah (Dr. Bill Thompson) and researchers at other institutions. We conducted psychological research to understand the effects of severe vision loss (severely blurred vision and reduced peripheral field-of-view) on spatial perception and navigation through indoor environments. We worked with younger and older adults as well as individuals with clinical low vision.

In several ongoing projects, my research centers on understanding the relationships between movement and spatial thinking. In particular, I am interested in understanding the impacts of motor training on improving spatial thinking, considering the possibility of motor training serving as an effective intervention for improving spatial abilities in various populations. I study both existing cognitive abilities in movement experts (such as dancers and other athletes) as well as spatial-cognitive abilities in developmental contexts.

This project is a collaboration with Dr. Chiara Meneghetti at the University of Padua in Padua, Italy funded by the National Science Foundation Women in Cognitive Science Travel Award to Initiate International Collaborations.

Individuals differ in use of several documented navigation strategies, including preferring route versus survey strategies and accurately using distal (far, such as mountains) versus proximal (near, such as buildings) cues. Some evidence shows that the structure of the environment influences these preferences—namely, people from more structured, gridlike environments tend to possess more survey-based representations of the environment compared to people from more irregular environments who tend to rely on route-based representations. It is often assumed that survey-based strategies are somehow superior to route-based strategies because they exemplify a navigator’s development of a “cognitive map.” However, we and others argue that the value of the navigation strategy likely depends on the environment in which one is navigating. In some environments, survey-based strategies that involve attending to distal cues and being aware of cardinal directions are likely more efficient for navigation whereas in other environments route-based strategies that involve attending to proximal cues are more efficient. The current study aimed to test this question in a cross-cultural study between Utah, USA and Padua, Italy.

Taken together, our results suggest that experience within a certain environment may influence the strategies that people use to navigate. In environments (such as Padua) that are irregular (winding, non-grid-like) and visibility is limited to proximal cues only, people tend to use route-retracing strategies and accurate rely on proximal cues. In environments (such as Salt Lake City) that are highly structured, gridlike, and oriented in relation to cardinal directions with strong distal cues (mountains), participants tend to report using more survey-based strategies and tend less toward route-retracing. A larger takeaway is that certain navigation strategies are more beneficial within the demands of certain environments and there is not necessarily one navigation strategy (traditionally the survey strategy) that is superior.

This project is a collaboration with Dr. Laurel Buxbaum and Dr. Aaron Wong at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute. We aim to understand how people imitate upper limb movements and how imitation is affected by stroke, addressing questions such as 1) whether people can imitate both static postures and dynamic end-effector trajectories and 2) whether the spatial perspective of the instructor improves performance. We use novel kinematic and virtual reality methods.

This ongoing project, for which I serve as Principal Investigator, is funded by an Albert Einstein Society research grant and has three aims:

1) To determine whether sensorimotor cues affect spatial navigation in stroke using a naturalistic real-world task.

2) To characterize the underlying processes contributing to navigation deficits in individuals with stroke.

3) To examine relationships between damage to discrete brain regions and navigation performance.