Spatial Cognition (Psychology) Research Papers (original) (raw)

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book intro in downloadable .pdf] "It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." --John Steinbeck... more

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- Creative Writing, Neuroscience, Psychology, Applied Psychology
- by Christopher Madan and +1
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- Memory (Cognitive Psychology), Spatial cognition, Spatial Cognition (Psychology), Memory
- by Thomas Dunn and +1
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- Spatial cognition, Spatial Cognition (Psychology)

In Ansorge, U., Ditye, T., Florack, A., & Leder, H. (Eds). Abstracts of the 18th European Conference on Eye Movements, 2015, Vienna. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 8(4):1, 56.

Nakh-Daghestanian languages have encountered growing interest from typologists and linguists from other subdiscplines, and more and more languages from the Nakh-Daghestanian language family are being studied. This paper provides a grammatical overview of the hitherto undescribed Sanzhi Dargwa, followed by a detailed analysis of the grammaticalized expression of spatial elevation in Sanzhi. Spatial elevation, a topic that has not received substantial attention in Caucasian linguistics, manifests itself across different parts of speech in Sanzhi Dargwa and related languages. In Sanzhi, elevation is a deictic category in partial opposition with participant-oriented deixis / horizontally-oriented directional deixis. This paper treats the spatial uses of demonstratives, spatial preverbs and spatial cases that express elevation as well as the semantic extension of this spatial category into other, non-spatial domains. It further compares the Sanzhi data to other Caucasian and non-Caucasian languages and makes suggestions for investigating elevation as a subcategory within a broader category of topographical deixis.

- by Diana Forker
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- Typology, Spatial cognition, Languages of the Caucasus, Caucasus

Much attention has recently been paid to the idea, which I label 'External World Acquaintance' (EWA), that the phenomenal character of perceptual experience is partially constituted by external features. One motivation for EWA which has received relatively little discussion is its alleged ability to help deal with the 'Explanatory Gap' (e.g. Fish 2008, 2009, Langsam 2011, Allen 2016). I provide a reformulation of this general line of thought, which makes clearer how and when EWA could help to explain the specific phenomenal nature of visual experience. In particular, I argue that by focusing on the different kinds of perceptual actions that are available in the case of visual spatial vs. colour perception, we get a natural explanation for why we should expect the specific nature of colour phenomenology to remain less readily intelligible than the specific nature of visual spatial phenomenology. (Forthcoming in Synthese.)

- by Thomas Raleigh
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- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Perception, Metaphysics of Consciousness

In this theoretical paper we propose three different kinds of cognitive
structure that have not been differentiated in the psychological and
cognitive linguistic literatures. They are spatial primitives, image
schemas, and schematic integrations. Spatial primitives are
the first conceptual building blocks formed in infancy, image schemas
are simple spatial stories built from them, and schematic integrations
use the first two types to build concepts that include non-spatial elements, such as force and emotion. These different kinds of structure have all come under the umbrella term of ‘image schemas’. However, they differ in their content, developmental origin, imageability, and role in meaning construction in language and in thought. The present paper indicates how preverbal conceptualization needs to be taken into account for a complete understanding of image schemas and their uses. It provides examples to illustrate this influence, the most important of these being the primacy of imageable spatial information.

- by Jean Mandler and +1
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- Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Developmental Psychology, Semantics

Try this simple experiment: close your eyes tightly, stand up, and walk to the other side of the room and back.You have just simulated for yourself what it is like to be blind. Well, not quite: there are several importantfactors missing. Firstly, you knew all along that you could open your eyes at any minute if you ran into trouble(e.g., a large hard obstacle). A blind person does not have that option for recovering from a mistake.Secondly, you almost certainly used your visually derived mental 'map' of the room's layout to guide you.Think how much harder it would have been to do the same thing in an unfamiliar room. Thirdly, you drew on aset of spatial concepts and orientation skills developed across your life-span that involved vision as a major unifying sense; the very first time you, as an infant, watched your hand as you reached out for an object, youwere already learning about space through vision.Even this experiment hardly brings you close to the everyday experience of someone who is totally,congenitally blind. Such a person has no visual memories of particular spaces, and has had no direct visual input into the development of their spatial understanding in general. Their experience of space comes fromhearing, touch and movement, and yet they can engage in pretty much all the activities that a sighted personcan. How is this possible when we, as sighted people, place so much importance on visual experience in our lives? Through theories and research in cognitive psychology and behavioural geography, this chapter willexplore the way(s) in which blind people experience and represent space. The first section will trace thehistory of thinking on the subject, the second will assess current work while the third will look to the future.

- by Simon Ungar
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- Spatial cognition, Blindness, Haptics, Haptic Perception

The single most important statement that can be made with regard to the logical status of human and physical geographical reasoning is that it belongs to the class of non-monotonic reasoning. In other words, geographical reasoning is defeasible (i.e. earlier drawn conclusions can be defeated by the addition of new facts, some of which are generated by the very application of our ideas outside academe) and non-demonstrative (i.e. our beliefs about reality cannot be demonstrated once and for ever; we must do with building provisional arguments based on the current weight of the evidence, which itself changes with the times). Indeed, unlike mathematics, which is a closed world of formalisms that relies heavily on deduction, demonstration, and proof, geography studies and attempts to improve the real, messy world out there. Because that wild, unruly world is always in a process of becoming, the conclusions drawn yesterday may have to be abandoned today, and so on, without end in sight. The core virtue of geographical reasoning is not certainty, but adaptability. As the world changes, so do geography’s entertained beliefs about how to improve it. The point we are trying to make is that an alternative window into the nature of geographical reasoning, besides the one provided by the discipline’s key concepts, offers an opening toward the more subtle problematic of the mechanisms by which the updating of geographical beliefs operate.

A new instrument, the Navigational Strategy Questionnaire (NSQ), was designed to assess individual difference on three scales measuring spatial updating, allocentric, and landmark-dependent navigational strategies. As existing navigational assessments usually measure procedural and survey knowledge acquired from navigation, this questionnaire includes a new scale measuring spatial updating strategy, which attempts to identify it as having cognitive processes distinct from those of other strategies that are recruited for the representational knowledge of large-scale environments. Principal component analyses revealed four independent factors: three of which clearly reflected the three aforementioned strategies, and an additional fourth factor evaluating map usage. All four scales of the NSQ demonstrated adequate internal and test-retest reliablilities. Based on sketch-map drawings which assessed the different types of environmental representations, illustrators of three-dimensional (3-D) sketch-maps portrayed accurate spatial configuration and topographical features, and scored the highest on the NSQ spatial updating scale. That implied a functional role of spatial updating in the formation of realistic spatial representations of large-scale environments as seen from the egocentric perspective. Further assessments using two spatial working memory tests provided convergent and discriminant validities for all four scales, and a virtual tunnel task demonstrated predictive validities for both spatial updating and allocentric scales.

- by Jimmy Y Zhong, PhD
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- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Psychometrics, Spatial cognition

Algunos estudios han demostrado que la posición del cuerpo humano influye en la percepción visual. De alguna manera, desde que por procesos evolutivos la percepción involucró aspectos propios de la gravedad, el ser humano pudo desarrollar un modelo interno multimodal sensorial y cognitivo referido a esta fuerza física. Dicho modelo está muy estrechamente ligado a la percepción visual, de modo que la percepción de las imágenes que aceptan dos posibles configuraciones perceptuales (llamadas imágenes biestables) se puede ver influenciada por la información que provee el sistema vestibular. En ese sentido, la orientación gravitacional del cuerpo humano debe ser estimada cuando un observador se enfrenta al proceso de decodificación de un estímulo visual. La percepción biestable está relacionada con habilidades cognitivas, en razón a que este tipo de percepción requiere de un procesamiento central que normalmente involucra las áreas prefrontal y parietal del cerebro humano. Este hecho puede ejercer una influencia en los saltos o cambios de configuración perceptual que se pueden manifestar, entendiendo que el estímulo biestable involucra dos posibles interpretaciones. El concepto de reversibilidad perceptual se hace presente cuando el observador experimenta un cambio entre una configuración perceptual y otra. Así, el número de cambios entre un percepto y otro es el número de reversibilidades perceptuales. Estas alteraciones perceptuales, que normalmente ocurren cuando se observaeuna imagen biestable, pueden depender tanto de la intención del observador por hacer dichas alternancias como del tipo de imagen biestable o ambigua que está siendo observada.

- by Reyyan Bilge and +1
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- Cognitive Psychology, Mental Representation, Spatial Cognition (Psychology)

Being able to predict potential collisions is a necessary survival prerequisite for all moving species. Temporal and spatial information is fundamental for this purpose. However, it is not clear yet if the peripersonal (i.e. near) and extrapersonal (i.e. far) distance between our body and the moving objects affects the way in which we can predict possible collisions. In order to assess this, we manipulated independently velocity and path of two balls moving one towards the other in such a way as to collide or not in peripersonal and extrapersonal space. In two experiments, participants had to judge if these balls were to collide or not. The results consistently showed a lower discrimination capacity and a more liberal tendency to predict collisions when the moving balls were in peripersonal space and their velocity was different rather than equal. This did not happen in extrapersonal space. Therefore, peripersonal space was particularly affected by temporal information. The possible link between the motor and anticipatory adaptive function of peripersonal space and collision prediction mechanisms is discussed.

- by Francesco Ruotolo and +1
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- Spatial Cognition (Psychology), Collision detection, Peripersonal Space

The mental rotation ability is an essential spatial reasoning skill in human cognition and has proven to be an essential predictor of mathematical and STEM skills, critical and computational thinking. Despite its importance, little is known about when and how mental rotation processes are activated in games explicitly targeting spatial reasoning tasks. In particular, the relationship between spatial abilities and Tetris TM has been analysed several times in the literature. However, these analyses have shown contrasting results between the effectiveness of Tetris-based training activities to improve mental rotation skills. In this work, we studied whether, and under what conditions, such ability is used in the Tetris TM game by explicitly modelling mental rotation via an ACT-R based cognitive model controlling a virtual agent. The obtained results show meaningful insights into the activation of mental rotation during game dynamics. The study suggests the necessity to adapt game dynamics in order to force the activation of this process and, therefore, can be of inspiration to design learning activities based on Tetris TM or redesign the game itself to improve its educational effectiveness.

- by Antonio Lieto
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- Cognitive Architectures, Cognitive Modeling, Serious Games, Spatial cognition

"The conceptual metaphor theory states that abstract concepts are represented by image schemas from concrete domains. In the present study we investigated the mapping for SIMILARITY IS CLOSENESS using tasks with nonlinguistic materials. In Experiments 1 and 2 participants decided whether two squares were similar or dissimilar in colour. The spatial distance between the squares was varied. Performance to similar colours was better at shorter distances, whereas performance to dissimilar colours was better at longer distances. In Experiments 3 and 4 participants made distance decisions to similar and dissimilar colours squares. Performance was not affected by similarity. These results show that metaphorical mappings can be found even beyond the context of linguistic metaphors and that the mapping between SIMILARITY and CLOSENESS is
asymmetrical."

Science centers such as museums and planetariums have used stereoscopic (“three‐dimensional”) films to draw interest from and educate their visitors for decades. Despite the fact that most adults who are finished with their formal education get their science knowledge from such free‐choice learning settings very little is known about the effect of stereoscopic film presentation on their science learning. We explored this issue by designing a quasi‐experimental field trial with a short film about the shape of the Milky Way galaxy. The film was produced based on a set of stereoscopic design principles derived from spatial cognition and cognitive load literature with the goal of lowering the audience's extraneous cognitive load. The film was randomly shown in either two‐dimensional (2D) or stereoscopic format to 498 adults who visited a large, urban planetarium. To investigate the extent of audience's change related to galaxy‐related spatial concepts, an identical set of questions was asked on iPads before and after the film was shown. A delayed posttest was given to 123 of those adults approximately 6 months later. Test performances were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of covariances (ANCOVAs) with demographic and spatial visualization ability measures as covariates. Results show identical short‐term learning gains in both the 2D and stereoscopic groups. However, only the stereoscopic group exhibited long‐term learning gains. Findings were interpreted through the lenses of cognitive load theory and the limited capacity model of mediated message processing.

- by Aaron Price and +1
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- Planetariums, Spatial Cognition (Psychology), Stereoscopy, Astronomy Education

Introduction: This paper outlines the basic concepts of mental space representations, its primary concepts and the connection to psychology and psychotherapy. Also included are the descriptions of three mental space based psychotherapies and their applications. A comprehensive list of references containing case-studies and researches is also provided for the three mental space based psychotherapies, for further study and research. Objectives: This paper aims at revealing the connection between the well-researched concepts of mental space and visual-spatial representations and their use and applicability in the psychotherapy and overall psychology field. Methods: Literature review. Results: The consideration of the importance of mental representations and their influence on the clients' social world, and emotional problems and the further encouragement of developing tools and approaches that can work directly with this abstract constructs. Conclusions: This paper anticipates a new paradigm to emerge and to further develop, that of Mental Space Psychology and the authors also aim at stimulating interest from other specialists in the field of experiential psychotherapy for this new approach and its vast possibilities.

- by Alexandru Ioan Manea and +1
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- Psychotherapy, Spatial Cognition (Psychology), Clean Language, Clean Space

Most research on tactile maps has focused on aspects of map design and methods of construction. Relatively little attention has been paid to the way in which blind and visually impaired people actually use tactile maps for everyday way finding tasks. This paper reports on studies carried out in Madrid and Sheffield which consider how people gain spatial knowledge from tactile maps. In the Madrid study, participants were introduced to an urban area by one of three instructional methods: direct experience, tactile map or verbal description. Those who learned the area with the map were considerably more proficient in following the route unguided than were participants who received the other two instructional methods. However the different methods had little effect on the participants' overall representation of the space. It is possible that the map reading strategies used by the participants were effective for gaining practical route-based knowledge but did not give the participants an overall spatial representation of the area. To explore this possibility further, the Sheffield study considered the effect of individual differences in map reading strategies on the type of mental representation which visually impaired people acquire from a tactile map. It was found that those participants who acquired an accurate and full representation of the map used different map learning strategies from those who performed less well. We suggest implications of these studies for the education and rehabilitation of blind and visually impaired people

- by Simon Ungar
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- Cartography, Spatial cognition, Blindness, Spatial Cognition (Psychology)
- by Carl Polley
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- Cognitive Science, Embodiment, Cognitive Linguistics, Spatial Cognition (Psychology)

Workshop / Tutorial at International Conference SPATIAL COGNITION, 2010, Portland, Oregon

- by Joao Pinelo Silva
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- Space Syntax, Spatial cognition, Spatial Cognition (Psychology)

This paper concerns the development of a new computational stochastic analysis in order to gain insight into situated vision in spatial environments. It is structured in three parts. The first two parts present the theoretical framework for the new model, based on the following propositions: firstly, that isovists are bound configurations containing one or more areas of spatial points that are intervisible; secondly, that
observers are capable of embodied projection in space, anticipating how relations seen from a position can be seen from other regions that are one step away from the current position, and building expectations about other spaces visible from these regions; and thirdly, that we need a method that describes isovists not as static units but as dynamic seeds for a global framework of knowledge. The final part of the paper
presents the new method with the following functionalities: a. continuous-time stochastic discretisation of space for isovist root selection and isovist generation; b. quantification of geometric isovists properties
based on successive isovist intersection; c. high resolution of isovist analysis; d. four quantitative isovist measures. These measures are discussed in hypothetical layouts and in the context of Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. The paper contributes a dynamic modelling technique to the discussion of diagrams and their capacity to represent embodied vision as actualised and virtually embedded possibilities, rather
than as static structures.

- by Cheryl A Cohen
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- Spatial Cognition (Psychology)

In spite of the growing body of research on frames of spatial reference, a number of important questions remain unanswered. This study explores reference frame use in Bashkir, based on a linguistic matching task and a nonverbal task. In the linguistic task, speakers relied freely on intrinsic and relative frames. In intrinsic descriptions, two different kinds of mapping were attested: a mapping based on the Ground's function, and a mapping based on the Ground's shape. Several factors were identified that affect the choice of linguistic description, including lexical choice, the chair's orientation with respect to the viewer, and the speaker's age. Interference from Russian was not a significant factor. The repair strategies speakers used when encountering misunderstanding suggest that they were not aware of the source of their difficulties. A number of previous studies reported, for different languages, a correlation between reference frame use in linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks, supporting the linguistic relativity hypothesis. The data from Bashkir shows no such correlation: nonverbal coding strategies did not correspond to the same individual's linguistic strategies, but correlated with the use of Russian in linguistic descriptions. I interpret this finding tentatively as pointing toward a mediated relationship between spatial cognition and language.

The notion examining the interaction between the individual and the physical setting is the concept of perception, which is evaluated by Hall (1966) as the main competence that living organisms possess for survival. In this manner, perceptual product can be defined as the result of perceptual processes through which the stimuli from the environment are converted into cognitive data by the receptor cells of sense organs-mainly the eye. According to Pallasmaa (2005), the eye became the centre of the perceptual world through the invention of perspectival representation, which turned into a symbolic form both describing and conditioning perception. Also, such concepts as Merleau-Ponty's (2005) bodily experience, a classification of perceptual modalities, have been partly replaced by more holistic approaches, considering the experience as the most essential factor of the physical setting which is defined as the collection of cognitive data of individuals formed by various information processing circumstances (Downs and Stea, 2011). Cognitive mapping is the process of a mental representation which people acquire, code, store, recall and decode information about the relative location and attributes of the physical setting (Downs and Stea 2011). This imaged information includes impressions about structure or appearance of a place, its relative location, its use and its values. On the other hand, a specific place's structure, value and relative relations can be analysed in a more analytical way. Space syntax is a method for describing and analysing the relationships between spaces and a set of techniques for the representation, quantification, and interpretation of spatial relations in buildings and settlements. Contributing to this debate, this paper explores the cognitive data generated by sighted people in a non-visual bodily experience, as they are guided through " Dialogue in the Dark " , a thematic environment consisting of completely dark rooms equipped with scent, sound, wind and tactile simulations of a specific urban setting and syntactic relations of that space. In this regard, a two-step methodology is applied: the first step comprises cognitive data from the cognitive maps drawn by participants just after their experience, while the second one comprises existing spatial data revealed by syntactic analyses. Finally, the correlation between the cognitive frequencies of the experienced nodes in each cognitive map and the syntactic values of the setting are statistically analysed. 2 Statistical outcomes show that without vision, no correlation is found between the syntactic values and the frequency of spaces but, auditive and tactile characteristics of the spaces are significantly correlated with the frequencies of the spaces. In conclusion, the results show that spatial cognition without vision is mainly dependent on bodily experience of the self which is stimulated mostly by auditive and tactile senses, and also that the effect of the syntactic characteristics of the space derived from visual parameters loosens the ties with the notion of spatial cognition.

- by Mine Tunçok Sarıberberoğlu and +2
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- Space Syntax, Spatial cognition, Spatial Cognition (Psychology), Space Syntax (Research Methodology)
- by Cheryl A Cohen
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- Spatial Cognition (Psychology)

Gender differences are often seen as either biologically determined or culturally acquired or conditioned. However, in an age where gender equality is the main target, neither peer reviewers nor students show much interest in gender differences. Moreover, not only do people try to integrate their 'ying' and 'yang' in their personalities also transgender identities are publicly acknowledged, appreciated and respected. Thus, in this chapter, I argue that we need to downgrade gender differences to a statistical variable that explains variance, sharpens statistical effects and reveals strategies. I am giving examples from my developmental psychology research where the split-sample analysis by gender showed amazing and often unexpected effects.

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the main phenomenological features of lived space, that is, space as it is experienced by the subject through various intentional modes, first of all perception, but also non perceptual modes, such as trying to remember where something is or how a room is arranged, or thinking about the way to go from A to B (itinerary planning). A general overview of the most important phenomenological accounts made in the literature is proposed, with a focus on the following topics: the relation between bodily skills, and more generally motricity (i.e. the capacity to move), and lived space; the impact of one’s body materiality on one’s experience of space: how possessing a physical body with material properties such as impenetrability and heaviness affects one’s experience of space; the role of the anticipation of possibilities in the enacting and organization of lived space; the role of sociality and the impact of one’s body ‘visibility’, i.e. the fact that one can be perceived by others, in one’s experience of space. The objective of this overview in the context of this book is to get a better understanding of the experience of space in visually impaired people. Based on this phenomenological account, this chapter will, as a result, offer a series of reflections about the peculiarities of the space blind people live in.

- by Gunnar Declerck and +1
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- Spatial cognition, Space and Place, Embodiment, Blindness

In the past few decades, sex differences in spatial cognition have often been attributed to adaptation in response to natural selection. A common explanation is that home range size differences between the sexes created different cognitive demands pertinent to wayfinding in each sex and resulted in the evolution of sex differences in spatial navigational ability in both humans and nonhuman mammals. However, the assumption of adaptation as the appropriate mode of explanation was nearly simultaneous with the discovery and subsequent verification of the male superiority effect, even without any substantive evidence establishing a causal role for adaptation. An alternate possibility that the sex difference in cognition is a genetic or hormonal side effect has not been rigorously tested using the comparative method. The present study directly evaluates how well the range hypothesis fits the
available data on species differences in spatial ability by use of a phylogenetically based, cross-species, comparative analysis. We find no support for the hypothesis that species differences in home range size dimorphism are positively associated with parallel differences in spatial navigation abilities. The alternative hypothesis that sex differences in spatial cognition result as a hormonal side effect is better supported by the data.

- by Enoch Ng
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Spatial cognition, Linguistics

Workshop at Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, University College London, 2013

- by Joao Pinelo Silva
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- Space Syntax, Spatial cognition, Spatial Cognition (Psychology)

Introduction: This paper outlines the basic concepts of mental space representations, its primary concepts and the connection to psychology and psychotherapy. Also included are the descriptions of three mental space based psychotherapies and their applications. A comprehensive list of references containing case-studies and researches is also provided for the three mental space based psychotherapies, for further study and research. Objectives: This paper aims at revealing the connection between the well-researched concepts of mental space and visual-spatial representations and their use and applicability in the psychotherapy and overall psychology field. Methods: Literature review. Results: The consideration of the importance of mental representations and their influence on the clients’ social world, and emotional problems and the further encouragement of developing tools and approaches that can work directly with this abstract constructs. Conclusions: This paper anticipates a new pa...

People revisit spatial locations of visually encoded information when they are asked to retrieve that information, even when the visual image is no longer present. Such " looking at nothing " during retrieval is likely modulated by memory load (i.e., mental effort to maintain and reconstruct information) and the strength of mental representations. We investigated whether words that are more difficult to remember also lead to more looks to relevant, blank locations. Participants were presented four nouns on a two by two grid. A number of lexico-semantic variables were controlled to form high-difficulty and low-difficulty noun sets. Results reveal more frequent looks to blank locations during retrieval of high-difficulty nouns compared to low-difficulty ones. Mixed-effects modelling demonstrates that imagery-related semantic factors (imageability and concreteness) predict looking at nothing during retrieval. Results provide the first direct evidence that looking at nothing i...

The Navigation Strategy Questionnaire (NSQ) [Zhong, 2013; Zhong & Kozhevnikov, 2016] contains three self-report scales assessing three types of strategies that are commonly employed when navigating our everyday environments on foot: (i) egocentric spatial updating strategy (ii) survey-based/allocentric strategy, and (iii) route/procedural strategy. An initial 60 items were generated to assess preference for egocentric spatial updating strategy from two traditional scales assessing preferences for procedural and survey-based strategies. Principal component analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation resulted in a final set of 44 items. The egocentric spatial updating strategy scale (17 items) assesses path integration mechanisms (e.g., continuous tracking of self-motion and proximal object cues), an ego-referenced sense of direction, and the recruitment of egocentric frame(s) of reference during mental imagery. The survey-based strategy scale (12 items) assesses competence in cognitive mapping of routes and large-scale environments, and the formation of survey knowledge based on allocentric or environment-centered frames of reference. The procedural strategy (15 items) assesses visual attention to and memory for object/landmarks, and the reliance on object/landmark information for mentalizing routes of travel in a non-spatial/piecemeal or sequential fashion. To compute the respective scale scores, sum the ratings from the items that constitute each scale and average them. Non-desired items can also be discarded, whenever necessary, in the computation of the scale scores. [COPYRIGHT CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, J. Y. ZHONG 2013].

In everyday living, one of our most fundamental human needs entails in knowing the objects and places around us and having the capacity to freely roam about this environment. A great part of our lives is spent on travelling from one place to another, either within the same environment or between environments. This spontaneous activity stems from our adaptive needs to seek shelter, to find food, and to escape from harm's way. It is summarized by the word "navigation," which is characterized by the "planning of travel through the environment, updating position and orientation during travel, and in the event of becoming lost, reorienting and reestablishing travel towards the destination" (Loomis et al., 1999, p. 125). More precisely, navigation has been conceived to comprise of the behavioral component of locomotion, and the cognitive component of wayfinding (Montello, 2001, 2005). Locomotion refers to the physical movement from one place to another that is usually guided by vision. It is typified by activities such as steering, obstacle avoidance, and approaching objects. On the other hand, wayfinding involves the tactical and strategic aspects of navigation. It encapsulates decision-making or reasoning, route planning, and the formation of environmental representation for the exploration of places beyond the line of sight. With these definitions in mind, this paper addresses how individuals differ with regard to the environmental representations formed after travelling a novel route, and how different navigational strategies contribute to the formation of these distinct types of environmental representations.

- by Guillermo Rodríguez-Martínez
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- Philosophy, Art, Spatial Cognition (Psychology), Artes

Expérimental and brain imaging studies provide strong évidence for thé involvement of motor processes in spatial ability problems, such as mental rotation tasks. This study was designed to assess thé relationship between motor performance in sport and mental rotation problems solving. Elite and novice athlètes in varions sports completed two spatial ability tasks thé Mental Rotation Test (MRT Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978) and thé Movement Imagery Spécifie Test (MIST), sport spécifie training and MRT results (experiments 1 &• 2 Moreau, Clerc, Mansy-Dannay, Guerrien, 2010). If motor processes are décisive in spatial ability tasks, we shouldfind différences favoring individuals involved in activities that require complex motor skills. Interestingly, we found a significant relationship between sports performance, activity, sport-specific training and MRT results (experiment 1 &• 2). In addition, thé well-documented gender effect on thé MRT was confirmed (experiments 1 &• 2). Results also und...

- by alain guerrien
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- Psychology, Cognitive Science, Sport Psychology, Spatial cognition
- by Jimmy Y Zhong, PhD
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- Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Perception
- by Yulia Sandamirskaya and +1
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- Embodied Cognition, Spatial Language, Spatial Cognition (Psychology), Dynamic Field Theory

We examine cross-linguistic influence in the processing of motion sentences by L2 users from an embodied cognition perspective. The experiment employs a priming paradigm to test two hypotheses based on previous action and motion research in cognitive psychology. The first hypothesis maintains that conceptual representations of motion are embodied by sensory and motor systems (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002; Zwaan & Taylor, 2006) and predicts that linguistic descriptions of motion will be susceptible to conceptual priming effects. The second hypothesis assumes that the processing of fictive motion sentences, such as The road runs through the forest (cf. Talmy, 2000a), involves additional mental simulation of motion (Matlock, 2004b; Richardson & Matlock, 2007) and predicts that fictive motion will be processed more slowly than real motion. The participants were groups of Polish and English monolinguals and Polish L2 users of English, who were students in an English-medium university program. Sentence meaningfulness judgment and response time data were collected from the monolinguals and the L2 users tested in both languages. Sentence meaningfulness judgments were examined to see how the participants represent motion in language and response time data were analyzed for evidence of conceptual processing. The results showed expected differences in response times to various sentence types in all groups, but the priming effect was not observed in Polish monolinguals and only selectively present in the L2 users responding in both languages. The results of our experiment indicate that fictive motion processing is both embodied in physical experience of motion and modified by language.
(To view the article click on the link below:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2015.12178.x/pdf)