Name: Jaida Long

School of Psychology – Master’s Thesis Defense Meeting

Date: Thursday, November 6, 2025

Time:  11:15 am – 1:15 pm

Location:  Virtual

Teams Link: Master's Defense | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

Thesis Chair/Advisor:

Thackery Brown, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech) 

Thesis Committee Members:

Thackery Brown, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech) 

Scott Moffat, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech) 

Tansu Celikel, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

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

Abstract: Recent research has tested whether environment geometry modulates spatial memory (SM) (for example, square environments vs. non-parallel geometry like in a trapezoidal space). Such local geometric cues can distort neural metrics that putatively underlie cognitive maps, impairing single-object SM in trapezoid environments compared to square environments. However, in the real world, SM is usually learned as sequential relationships (in the course of navigating routes), and what cues are in an environment can change in more ways than geometry. My thesis builds upon this prior research by examining how environment geometry, route-based navigation, individual differences, and global/local cue types interact with one another to modulate SM. Laboratory and real-world environments are often complex and can mix global/local cues together; critically, my thesis will dissociate how geometry affects SM depending on the availability of local vs. global visual cues. Human participants completed an egocentric, virtual navigation task where they learned routes of six object locations in two square and two trapezoid open-field environments. Then, memory of object locations and sequences was assessed by navigating the same environments again from first-person and overhead perspectives. Participant SM was defined as the Euclidean distance between participant object locations and true object locations. Self-report measures of individual spatial abilities were leveraged to help understand individual variation in SM. My task contained two conditions of cue availability: In the Global condition, local geometric cues and global (external) environment cues were present. In the Non-Global condition, only local environment cues were present. I demonstrated that cue availability interacted with environment geometry: in the overhead test, the impacts of non-parallel geometry (trapezoid) on memory were strengthened without global cues (Non-Global>Global), and this reflected an improvement in memory, driven especially by SM in the narrow end of the trapezoid relative to analogous locations in parallel geometric environments (squares). Overall, these results suggest that cue availability is critical in its influence on environment geometry effects of SM, such that, depending on available cues, encoding of spatial information from first-person perspectives may facilitate memory (when tested from an overhead perspective). Moreover, my analyses revealed serial order and environment geometry effects that interacted such that, aligning with predictions based in path integration research, the worst SM was towards the end of routes in the narrow ends of trapezoids. Importantly, these results were significantly influenced by individual differences – particularly in contexts where there were more conflicting/distorting cues for self-localization while navigating (global condition), higher SOD tracked greater sensitivity to environment geometry at encoding, to the detriment of their SM in later tests. Altogether, my thesis contributes novel information to spatial navigation literature by investigating how cue availability, environment geometry, route-based navigation, and individual differences interact to modulate and predict SM.