Evidences demonstrated that verbal information allows to
construct a mental representation of space, even for persons
who have no previous experience of sight. However, the
construction of a mental model from verbal description is not
presentation-free, as the verbal description anchors
participants to a single perspective. The aim of our study is to
test the perspective of spatial representation after the physical
exploration of space, in order to avoid the influence of format
presentation. We asked visual impaired and sighted
participants to explore autonomously a room and then to
perform a Sentence Verification Task, with sentences
presented in an egocentric and in an allocentric version. We
measured both response time and accuracy. Data
demonstrated a better performance with allocentric
perspective, even if the response time suggests that
participants are more confident with the egocentric
perspective. In conclusion, we suggest that the physical
exploration of space leads to the development of an
allocentric representation.
