Being able to reorient to the spatial environment after disorientation is a basic adaptive challenge. There is clear evidence that reorientation uses geometric information about the shape of the surrounding space. However, there has been controversy concerning whether use of geometry is a modular function, and whether use of features is dependent on human language. A key argument for the role of language comes from shadowing findings where adults engaged in a linguistic task during reorientation ignored a colored wall feature and only used geometric information to reorient [Hermer-Vazquez, L., Spelke, E., & Katsnelson, A. (1999). Sources of flexibility in human cognition: Dual task studies of space and language. Cognitive Psychology, 39, 3-36]. We report three studies showing: (a) that the results of Hermer-Vazques et al. [Hermer-Vazquez, L., Spelke, E., & Katsnelson, A. (1999). Sources of flexibility in human cognition: Dual task studies of space and language. Cognitive Psychology, 39, 3-36] are obtained in incidental learning but not with explicit instructions, (b) that a spatial task impedes use of features at least as much as a verbal shadowing task, and (c) that neither secondary task impedes use of features in a room larger than that used by Hermer-Vazquez et al. These results suggest that language is not necessary for successful use of features in reorientation. In fact, whether or not there is an encapsulated geometric module is currently unsettled. The current findings support an alternative to modularity; the adaptive combination view hypothesizes that geometric and featural information are utilized in varying degrees, dependent upon the certainty and variance with which the two kinds of information are encoded, along with their salience and perceived usefulness.

中文翻译：

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人类空间重新定位需要语言吗？重新考虑双重任务范式的证据

在迷失方向后能够重新定位到空间环境是一项基本的适应性挑战。有明确的证据表明，重新定位使用了有关周围空间形状的几何信息。然而，关于几何的使用是否是模函数，以及特征的使用是否依赖于人类语言，一直存在争议。语言作用的一个关键论点来自阴影发现，即在重新定位期间从事语言任务的成年人忽略了彩色墙壁特征，仅使用几何信息来重新定位 [Hermer-Vazquez, L., Spelke, E., & Katsnelson, A . (1999)。人类认知灵活性的来源：空间和语言的双重任务研究。认知心理学，39, 3-36]。我们报告的三项研究表明：（a）Hermer-Vazques 等人的结果。[Hermer-Vazquez, L., Spelke, E., & Katsnelson, A. (1999)。人类认知灵活性的来源：空间和语言的双重任务研究。Cognitive Psychology, 39, 3-36] 是在偶然学习中获得的，但没有明确的指示，(b) 空间任务阻碍使用特征的程度至少与语言阴影任务一样多，(c) 没有次要任务阻碍在比 Hermer-Vazquez 等人使用的房间更大的房间中使用特征。这些结果表明语言对于成功使用重新定位中的功能不是必需的。事实上，是否有封装的几何模块目前还没有定论。当前的研究结果支持模块化的替代方案；自适应组合视图假设几何和特征信息被不同程度地利用，