How semantic context and temporal dynamics affect egocentric and allocentric spatial representations

Pouring water from a bottle into a glass requires representing their relative spatial positions (spatial information) and knowing that such objects are found together, or one by one (temporal dynamics), in typical contexts, such as a kitchen (semantic information).While spatial information is encoded using egocentric (body-centered) or allocentric (object-centered) reference frames, semantic knowledge is organized in context frames, which help predict object-context associations. This study investigates whether daily-like semantic contexts and temporal dynamics affect egocentric and allocentric spatial representations. Participants were immersed in semantically meaningless (abstract) or meaningful (bathroom, kitchen) virtual environments. They memorized triads of objects presented either simultaneously (static condition) or sequentially (dynamic condition) and then provided egocentric or allocentric spatial judgments. Results revealed an improvement of allocentric accuracy in meaningful rather than meaningless environments, whereas no differences emerged for egocentric spatial judgments. Crucially, this semantic benefit for allocentric encoding emerged only in the dynamic condition, where spatial information had to be integrated over time. These findings show that semantic context selectively facilitates allocentric spatial representations, particularly when perceptual input unfolds dynamically. The results support the interaction between semantic and spatial memory to shape how we perceive the surrounding world.