Name: Jaida Long

Masters Thesis Proposal Meeting

Date: Tuesday, July 8th, 2025

Time: 11:00 am - 12:00pm

Location: Virtual, Meeting link click here

Thesis Chair/Advisor:

Thackery Brown, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members:

Tansu Celikel, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Scott Moffat, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Title: Cue Availability Interacts with Environment Structure in Shaping Cognitive Maps 

Abstract: Environment cues are critical for human spatial navigation. Different cue types can interact to shape the cognitive maps upon which spatial memory (SM) relies. Previous research has detailed how environment cues and geometry may interact together to shape SM, such as across square and trapezoid-shaped environments. This research suggests that local geometric cues can distort neural metrics which putatively support cognitive maps, reducing single-object SM in trapezoid environments relative to square environments. However, this theoretical framework has not been examined relative to route-based navigation, individual differences, and interactions between different cue types. The latter is particularly important because environments in both the lab and real world are often complex and can mix cues serving as “landmarks,” ranging from the geometry itself signifying where someone is to more discrete cues like a tall building or mountain. To investigate this, I propose a study in which human participants will complete an egocentric, virtual navigation task where they will learn routes of six object locations in two square and two trapezoidal open-field environments. Participants’ SM of the object locations and sequences will then be tested by navigating the same environments from first-person and overhead perspectives. In this testing, participants will be instructed to place the objects in the learned locations and order as accurately as possible. Distance error estimation will be defined by the Euclidean distance between participant object locations and true object locations. Importantly, this task will contain two conditions that manipulate cue availability: one version with local geometric differences and external environment cues (Global condition), and one with only geometric and internal environment cues (Non-Global condition). This will allow me to test how the presence/absence of global cues changes the influence of local geometric cues on SM. I will employ mixed-effects modeling to investigate how these conditions of cue availability interact with factors of environment geometry, serial order effects, and individual differences to modulate and predict SM. I predict that 1) environment geometry effects will be stronger in the Non-Global condition, such that SME would be worse in trapezoid environments compared to squares, 2) the effects of serial order on SME will be, overall, weaker in the Non-Global condition, and 3) the predictive power of individual differences on SME will be more equal across shapes in the Non-Global condition