Do Spatial Navigation and Episodic Memory Rely on the Same Systems? Evidence from a Naturalistic Experience with Children and Adults

Navigation and episodic memory are foundational cognitive processes that guide future decisions and are often linked to one another due to their behavioral and neural similarities. However, the extent and nature of their interdependence is unclear. We investigated this question using a real-world encoding experience with 8- to 13-year-old children and young adults. Participants were guided on a tour during which they learned the spatial locations of a series of objects and had various experiences with them. Factor analysis of three measures commonly used to assess spatial memory and four tests commonly used for episodic memory revealed two highly correlated latent factors. The first factor, which we termed spatiotemporal structure, included measures that require simultaneously representing all or part of the environment (finding routes, mapping the space symbolically, free recall of the experience, and spatial-temporal recognition). The second factor, which we termed perceptual/factual/locale, included perceptual and semantic recognition along with judgments of relative direction. These findings show that episodic memory and spatial representations are intertwined in naturalistic encoding and suggest directions for refining models of the function of these two systems.