A SPATIAL REPRESENTATION SYSTEM IN HUMANS
Target Article on Space

Abstract

This target article reviews evidence for the functional equivalence of spatial representations of observed environments and environments described in discourse. It is argued that people possess a spatial representation system that constructs mental spatial models on the basis of perceptual and linguistic information. Evidence for a distinct spatial system is reviewed.

Keywords

References

• Bryant, D. J. (1991) Perceptual characteristics of mental spatial models. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University.
• Bryant, D. J., Tversky, B. & Franklin, N. (1992). Internal and external spatial frameworks for representing described scenes. Journal of Memory and Language 31: 74-98.
• Clark, H. H. (1973). Space, time, semantics and the child. In T. E. Moore (Ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic.
• Denis, M. & Cocude, M. (1989). Scanning visual images generated from verbal descriptions. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 1: 293-307.
• Denis, M. & Denhiere, G. (1990). Comprehension and recall of spatial descriptions. European Bulletin of Cognitive Psychology 10: 115- 143.
• Denis, M. & Zimmer, H. D. (in press). Analog properties of cognitive maps constructed from verbal descriptions. Psychological Research.
• Dunn, J. C. & Kirsner, K. (1988). Discovering functionally independent mental processes: The principle of reversed association. Psychological Review 95: 91-101.
• Easton, R. D. & Bentzen, B. L. (1987). Memory for verbally presented routes: A comparison of strategies used by blind and sighted people. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 81: 100-105.
• Ehrlich, K. & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1982). Spatial descriptions and referential continuity. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 21: 296-306.
• Ellis, N. R. (1990). Is memory for spatial location automatically encoded? Memory & Cognition 18: 584-592.
• Farah, M. J., Brunn, J. L., Wong, A. B., Wallace, M. A. & Carpenter, P. A. (1990). Frames of reference for allocating attention to space: Evidence from the neglect syndrome. Neuropsychologia 28: 335- 347.
• Farah, M. J., Hammond, K. M., Levine, D. L. & Calvanio, R. (1988). Visual and spatial mental imagery: Dissociable systems of representation. Cognitive Psychology 20: 439-462.
• Feigenbaum, J. D. & Rolls, E. T. (1991). Allocentric and egocentric spatial information processing in the hippocampal formation of the behaving primate. Psychobiology 19: 21-40.
• Finke, R. A. & Shepard, R. N. (1986). Visual functions of mental imagery. In K. R. Boff, L. Kaufman & J. P. Thomas (Eds.), Handbook of perception and performance: Volume II, cognitive processes and performance. New York: Wiley.
• Foos, P. W. (1980). Constructing cognitive maps from sentences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 6: 25-38.
• Franklin, N. (1991) Representation of spatial information in described routes: Distance, turns, and objects. Unpublished manuscript, State University of New York, Stony Brook.
• Franklin, N. & Tversky, B. (1990). Searching imagined environments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 119: 63-76.
• Franklin, N.,Tversky, B. & Coon, V. (in press). Switching points of view in spatial mental models acquired from text. Memory & Cognition.
• Gallistel, C. R. (1990). The organization of learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Glenberg, A. M.,Meyer, M. & Lindem, K. (1987). Mental models contribute to foregrounding during text comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language 26: 69-83.
• Hintzman, D. L.,O'Dell, C. S. & Arndt, D. R. (1981). Orientation in cognitive maps. Cognitive Psychology 13: 149-206.
• Intraub, H. & Hoffman, J. E. (1992). Reading and visual memory: Remembering scenes that were never seen. American Journal of Psychology 105: 101-114.
• Jackendoff, R. (1987). Consciousness and the computational mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Jackendoff, R. & Landau, B. (1991). Spatial language and spatial cognition. In D. J. Napoli & J. A. Kegl (Eds.), Bridges between psychology and linguistics: A Swarthmore festschrift for Lila Gleitman. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1983). Mental models: Towards a cognitive science of language, inference, and consciousness. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Kesner, R. P., Farnsworth, G. & DiMattia, B. V. (1989). Double dissociation of egocentric and allocentric space following medial prefrontal and parietal cortex lesions in the rat. Behavioral Neuroscience 103: 956-961.
• Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Levelt, W. J. M. (1984). Some perceptual limitations on talking about space. In A. J. van Doorn, W. A. van de Grind & J. J. Koenderink (Eds.), Limits in perception. The Netherlands: Utrecht.
• Mandler, J. M., Seegmiller, O. & Day, J. (1977). On the coding of spatial information. Memory & Cognition 5: 10-16.
• Mani, K. & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1982). The mental representation of spatial descriptions. Memory & Cognition 10: 181-187.
• Marr, D. (1982). Vision: A computational investigation in the human representation of visual information. San Francisco: Freeman.
• McNamara, T. P. (1986). Mental representations of spatial representations. Cognitive Psychology 18: 87-121.
• Miller, G. A. & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1976). Language and perception. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Morrow, D. G.,Greenspan, S. L. & Bower, G. H. (1987). Accessibility and situation models in narrative comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language 26: 165-187.
• Naveh-Benjamin, M. (1987). Coding of spatial location information: An automatic process? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 13: 595-605.
• Oakhill, J. V. & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1984). Representation of spatial descriptions in working memory. Current Psychological Research & Reviews 3: 52-62.
• O'Keefe, J. & Nadel, L. (1978). The hippocampus as a cognitive map. Clarendon Press: Oxford.
• Park, D. C. & Mason, D. (1982). Is there evidence for automatic processing of spatial and color attributes present in matched pictures and words? Memory & Cognition 10: 76-81.
• Pezdek, K. (1983). Memory for items and their spatial locations by young and elderly adults. Developmental Psychology 19: 895-900.
• Pezdek, K.,Roman, Z. & Sobolik, K. G. (1986). Spatial memory for objects and words. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 12: 530-537.
• Sadalla, E. K. & Magel, S. G. (1980). The perception of traversed distance. Environment and Behavior 12: 65-79.
• Sadalla, E. K. & Staplin, L. G. (1980). The perception of traversed distance: Intersections. Environment and Behavior 12: 167-182.
• Salthouse, T. A. (1974). Using selective interference to investigate spatial memory representations. Memory & Cognition 2: 749-757.
• Shepard, R. N. & Hurwitz, S. (1984). Upward direction, mental rotation, and discrimination of left and right turns in maps. Cognition 18: 161-193.
• Talmy, L. (1983). How language structures space. In H. L. J. Pick & L. P. Acredolo (Eds.), Spatial orientation: Theory, research, and applications New York: Plenum Press.
• Tamura, R., Ono, T., Fukuda, M. & Nakamura, K. (1990). Recognition of egocentric and allocentric visual and auditory space by neurons in the hippocampus of monkeys. Neuroscience Letters 109: 293-298.
• Taylor, H. A. & Tversky, B. (1992). Spatial mental models derived from survey and route descriptions. Journal of Memory and Language 31: 261-292.
• Thorndyke, P. W. (1981). Distance estimation from cognitive maps. Cognitive Psychology 13: 526-550.
• van Dijk, T. A. & Kintsch, W. (1983). Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York: Academic Press.