Was the Fruit in Front of Me or Near the River? Biological Relevance and Reference Frame Preferences in Object-Location Memory Across the Lifespan

Spatial memory research has traditionally focused on how environmental features shape the use of egocentric and allocentric reference frames, with little attention to the role of the objects themselves. Here, using two datasets collected with a virtual reality object-location memory task, we investigated whether the biological relevance of objects modulates spatial memory performance depending on the reference frame used at retrieval. Participants encoded the positions of biological entities and artifacts and retrieved them using either egocentric or allocentric recall cues. In Study 1, young adults (N = 37) showed a significant interaction between object category and recall cue: biological entities were recalled more accurately under allocentric than egocentric retrieval, while artifacts showed the opposite pattern, though the category difference was significant only under allocentric retrieval. In Study 2, older adults and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (N = 80) showed a preserved biological advantage in overall spatial performance, whereas the interaction with recall cue was no longer observed, a pattern consistent with the reduced allocentric contribution typically associated with aging. These findings provide initial evidence that object categories may shape the retrieval of spatial locations.