Orientation specificity occurs in both small- and large-scale imagined routes presented as verbal descriptions

In Experiment 1, participants read a description of a 3-path route. One group was asked to imagine the route as a map, and the other group was asked to imagine walking a return journey along a larger version of the route. Subsequently, both groups made aligned judgments more accurately and more rapidly than cantraaligned judgments. In Experiments 2, 3A, and 3B, the orientation specificity effect was replicated despite variations in procedure designed to attenuate alignment effects. In Experiment 3C, participants visually explored computer-simulated environments with the same layout and relative dimensions as those presented verbally in Experiments 2 3B. The evidence for alignment effects in time taken to make judgments was weak, and no evidence of alignment effects was found in accuracy.