Although we are constantly making spatial decisions about where to place our objects and ourselves, few studies in psychology have investigated this phenomenon in-depth. In the current study, we examined how spatial decisions are made over time by tracking students' seating choices in classrooms over the course of a semester (i.e., 12 weeks). We found that seating choice became more fixed over time (i.e., a decrease in the distance between seats chosen on adjacent days), though this was disrupted by individuals' time of arrival to class; latecomers often sat further away from where they last sat. We also observed a surprising de-stabilization of this pattern on the last day of class wherein seating choices became more varied. These results suggest that although spatial preference stabilizes over time, this pattern of stabilization may weaken once individuals no longer expect to occupy that space in the future.

中文翻译：

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那是我的地盘！在自然环境中检查空间习惯的形成

尽管我们不断地做出关于放置物体和我们自己的空间决定，但很少有心理学研究深入研究这种现象。在当前的研究中，我们通过在一个学期（即 12 周）的课程中跟踪学生在教室中的座位选择，研究了如何随着时间的推移做出空间决策。我们发现座位选择随着时间的推移变得更加固定（即相邻日子选择的座位之间的距离减少），尽管这会受到个人到达课堂时间的影响；迟到的人往往坐得离上次坐的地方更远。我们还在课堂的最后一天观察到这种模式的不稳定，其中座位选择变得更加多样化。这些结果表明，尽管空间偏好会随着时间的推移而稳定，