Spatial memory

Spatial memory is required to navigate in an environment.

In cognitive psychology and neuroscience, spatial memory is a form of memory responsible for the recording and recovery of information needed to plan a course to a location and to recall the location of an object or the occurrence of an event.[1] Spatial memory is necessary for orientation in space.[2][3] Spatial memory can also be divided into egocentric and allocentric spatial memory.[4] A person's spatial memory is required to navigate in a familiar city. A rat's spatial memory is needed to learn the location of food at the end of a maze. In both humans and animals, spatial memories are summarized as a cognitive map.[5]

Spatial memory has representations within working, short-term memory and long-term memory. Research indicates that there are specific areas of the brain associated with spatial memory.[6] Many methods are used for measuring spatial memory in children, adults, and animals.[5]

  1. ^ Burgess, Neil (2021). Spatial memory. Encyclopædia Britannica.
  2. ^ Mehta, Mitul A. (2010), "Spatial Memory in Humans", in Stolerman, Ian P. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 1262–1266, doi:10.1007/978-3-540-68706-1_355, ISBN 978-3-540-68706-1, retrieved 2021-06-05
  3. ^ "Spatial Memory - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics". www.sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
  4. ^ Kolarik, B.; Ekstrom, A. (2015-01-01). "The Neural Underpinnings of Spatial Memory and Navigation". Brain Mapping. pp. 507–514. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-397025-1.00277-3. ISBN 9780123973160.
  5. ^ a b Wang, Jin-Hu (2019). Associative Memory Cells: Basic Units of Memory Trace. Springer Nature. p. 94. ISBN 978-9811395017.
  6. ^ Poeppel, David; Mangun, George R.; Gazzaniga, Michael S. (2020). The Cognitive Neurosciences. The MIT Press. p. 194. ISBN 978-0262043250.