Ageing is associated with declines in spatial memory, however, the source of these deficits remains unclear. Here we used eye-tracking to investigate age-related differences in spatial encoding strategies and the cognitive processes underlying the age-related deficits in spatial memory tasks. To do so we asked young and older participants to encode the locations of objects in a virtual room shown as a picture on a computer screen. The availability and utility of room-based landmarks were manipulated by removing landmarks, presenting identical landmarks rendering them uninformative, or by presenting unique landmarks that could be used to encode object locations. In the test phase, participants viewed a second picture of the same room taken from the same (0°) or a different perspective (30°) and judged whether the objects occupied the same or different locations in the room. We found that the introduction of a perspective shift and swapping of objects between encoding and testing impaired performance in both age groups. Furthermore, our results revealed that although older adults performed the task as well as younger participants, they relied on different visual encoding strategies to solve the task. Specifically, gaze analysis revealed that older adults showed a greater preference towards a more categorical encoding strategy in which they formed relationships between objects and landmarks.

衰老与空间记忆的下降有关，然而，这些缺陷的来源仍不清楚。在这里，我们使用眼动追踪来研究空间编码策略中与年龄相关的差异以及空间记忆任务中与年龄相关的缺陷背后的认知过程。为此，我们要求年轻和年长的参与者对虚拟房间中物体的位置进行编码，并在计算机屏幕上显示为图片。基于房间的地标的可用性和实用性是通过移除地标、呈现相同的地标使它们无信息或通过呈现可用于编码对象位置的独特地标来操纵的。在测试阶段，参与者查看从相同（0°）或不同角度（30°）拍摄的同一房间的第二张照片，并判断物体在房间内的位置是否相同或不同。我们发现，在编码和测试之间引入视角转换和对象交换会损害两个年龄组的表现。此外，我们的研究结果表明，尽管老年人和年轻参与者一样执行任务，但他们依靠不同的视觉编码策略来解决任务。具体来说，凝视分析显示，老年人更倾向于采用更分类的编码策略，在这种策略中，他们在物体和地标之间形成关系。我们发现，在编码和测试之间引入视角转换和对象交换会损害两个年龄组的表现。此外，我们的研究结果表明，尽管老年人和年轻参与者一样执行任务，但他们依靠不同的视觉编码策略来解决任务。具体来说，凝视分析显示，老年人更倾向于采用更分类的编码策略，在这种策略中，他们在物体和地标之间形成关系。我们发现，在编码和测试之间引入视角转换和对象交换会损害两个年龄组的表现。此外，我们的研究结果表明，尽管老年人和年轻参与者一样执行任务，但他们依靠不同的视觉编码策略来解决任务。具体来说，凝视分析显示，老年人更倾向于采用更分类的编码策略，在这种策略中，他们在物体和地标之间形成关系。