Reference Frames and Chunking in Spatial Memory Following a review of the relevant literature, two studies are presented exploring the nature of human spatial memory. Experiment 1 examined spatial representations of room sized environments for evidence that object locations were encoded egocentrically (relative to the body) and, alternatively, allocentrically (relative to some environmental referent). In Study 1, participants learned the locations of four objects, then were blindfolded and either (1) underwent a succession of 70° and 200° whole-body rotations, or (2) were fully disoriented and then underwent a similar sequence of 70° and 200° rotations. After each rotation, participants pointed to the objects without vision. Analyses of the pointing errors suggest that as participants lost orientation, represented object directions generally “drifted” off of their true directions as an ensemble, not in random, unrelated directions. This is interpreted as evidence that object to object (allocentric) relationships play a large part in the human spatial updating system. However, there was also some evidence that represented object directions occasionally “drifted” off of their true directions independently of one another, suggesting a lack of allocentric influence. Implications regarding the interplay of egocentric and allocentric information are considered. Study 2 explored a possible mechanism by which egocentric and allocentric systems interact within the human spatial memory and updating system. Specifically, evidence was sought that while certain environmental aspects may be updated independently of one another, other aspects may be grouped (or chunked) together and updated as a unit. Participants again learned the locations of an array of objects around them in a room, then were blindfolded and underwent a succession of passive, whole-body rotations, pointing to remembered target locations after each. Targets were located more precisely relative to each other if they were (1) separated by smaller angular distances, (2) contained within the same regularly configured arrangement, or (3) corresponded to parts of a common object. A hypothesis is presented elaborating the roles played by egocentric and allocentric information within the spatial updating system. Implications for current theories of spatial memory and spatial updating are discussed.