Map or Graph? Systematic Biases Inform the Structure of Human Spatial Representations

The present study investigated the structure of spatial representations using a novel computer-based navigation task. Specifically, we examined whether participants’ knowledge of a virtual environment was more consistent with the cognitive map or labeled graph hypothesis of spatial representation. Participants learned a virtual environment through disparate routes and then made relative and absolute distance judgments, generated novel shortcuts, and drew a map of the environment to assess their knowledge of the spatial locations of each object. Both relative and absolute distance judgments demonstrated systematic biases based on the distance and learned connectivity between objects. The shortcut and map-drawing tasks revealed substantial individual differences, indicating that some participants could accurately integrate spatial knowledge across different routes. Altogether, our results support the labeled graph hypothesis and highlight considerable individual variability across spatial navigation tasks.