Abstract

Human subjects were trained to find visible and invisible targets located in fixed places in a computer-generated (C-G) space. Young adults (aged 22-29 years) and Elders (aged 64-81 years) located the visible targets quickly. Young adults, however, located the invisible targets more quickly than did the Elders. On subsequent testing, Young adults and Elders reconstructed the room layout accurately, but only Young adults accurately recalled the correct location of the invisible target. Finally, examination of relations between measures of performance in natural space and measures of performance in C-G space revealed high positive correlations. The results demonstrate (a) Young adults place learn in C-G space more quickly than do Elders, (b) layout learning in C-G space occurs in both Young adults and Elders, and (c) measures of place learning taken from C-G space are externally valid.