The influence of emotions on spatial cognition: from route learning to egocentric and allocentric reference systems

Background: Emotions may influence how individuals represent spatial information. However, some studies show that positive emotions, but not negative emotions, improve spatial memory, while others show the opposite or no significant effect. Aim: Clarify the relationship between emotions and spatial cognition. Method: Study 1: 150 university students (Agemean: 20.50) learned a route containing emotional images (from IAPS) and then had to remember spatial information about the landmarks and the route. Study 2: 120 university students (Agemean: 21.72) memorized the location of triads of 3D geometric stimuli. Crucially, 40 participants viewed emotional images (from IAPS) before encoding, 40 participants during retention, and 40 participants before retrieval of spatial information. In all conditions, participants judged the distance of a stimulus relative to themselves (egocentric judgment) or relative to another stimulus (allocentric judgment) (i.e., Ego Allo task). Study 3: 40 university students (Agemean: 20.80) performed the Ego-Allo task with triads of emotional images (from IAPS). Study_4: 40 university students (Agemean: 21.45) performed the Ego-Allo task with geometric stimuli but in rooms that induced positive or negative moods. Results: Participants were more accurate in spatial judgments when stimuli and rooms had positive than negative valence. However, depending on the different processing stages of neutral stimuli, positive and negative images affected egocentric and allocentric spatial judgments differently. Conclusion: How emotions affect spatial cognition depends on the type of object (neutral vs. emotional), the role of the emotional event (distractor/target), and the environment in which spatial encoding occurs (pleasant vs. unpleasant).