Nancy Franklin (1992) Inquiring Into the Spatial Representation System. Psycoloquy: 3(40) Space (4)

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PSYCOLOQUY (ISSN 1055-0143) is sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Psycoloquy 3(40): Inquiring Into the Spatial Representation System

INQUIRING INTO THE SPATIAL REPRESENTATION SYSTEM
Commentary on Bryant on Space

Nancy Franklin
Department of Psychology
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY 11794

nfranklin@ccmail.sunysb.edu

Abstract

David Bryant (1992) argues for a common spatial representational system that operates on both verbal and perceptual input. To evaluate this possibility, a more detailed model will be needed, specifying at least (a) how the SRS works, (b) how and when it receives inputs, (c) how details of individual objects are incorporated into or associated with knowledge of their location, and (d) how the SRS interfaces with other, nonspatial knowledge. There are other details in which I'd be particularly interested as the argument for the SRS is further developed, including the degree of involvement of the SRS required in order to produce differential access.

Keywords

mental models, spatial cognition
1.1 David Bryant (1992) argues for a common spatial representational system that operates on both verbal and perceptual input. Information about space, regardless of the medium of input (e.g., from navigation, perception, or description) does appear to be represented spatially. This argument is not new in the literature, and there is little controversy here. Subjects have been shown to be competent at drawing maps, estimating distances, deriving short-cuts, and performing operations like mental scanning, regardless of the form of input. Response time is affected by spatial features such as distance (Kosslyn, Ball, & Reiser, 1978; Morrow, Greenspan, & Bower, 1987), direction (Franklin & Tversky, 1990; Hintzman, O'Dell, & Arndt, 1981), and perspective (Franklin, Tversky, & Coon, in press; Glenberg, Meyer, & Lindem, 1987; Levine, Marchon, & Hanley, 1984), independent of input, and Bryant appropriately cites many of these findings. Indeed, there are advantages to spatial representation of spatial information. Such representations would allow information about spatial relations that are not explicitly presented in a description to be nevertheless represented explicitly in memory and they would allow efficient updating, spatial inference, and search. It also seems clear that whatever cognitive system(s) are involved in modelling the physical world can communicate with the system(s) involved in processing descriptions about it, as indicated, for example, by subjects' ability to update memory for previously viewed configurations according to described changes.

1.2 Is there a single spatial representational system or format that integrates verbal and perceptual information about spatial configuration? Bryant argues for it, as have others (e.g., Jackendoff, 1987; Jackendoff & Landau, 1991; Miller & Johnson-Laird, 1976). Given that the end product of perceptual and linguistic input is the representation of a configuration consisting of details from both, and given phenomena such as the spatial interference effects of Easton & Bentzen (1987), the possibility of common representation, or at least shared resources, must certainly be considered. But to evaluate the possibility, it seems to me we'll need a more detailed model that specifies at least (a) how the SRS works, (b) how and when it receives input from perceptual and linguistic systems, (c) how details of individual objects are incorporated into or associated with knowledge of their location, and (d) how the SRS interfaces with other, nonspatial knowledge (so that, for example, indeterminate spatial relations can be encoded, or factual information about a landmark can be associated with knowledge of its location).

1.3 There are a few other details in which I'd be particularly interested as the argument for the SRS is further developed. In paragraph 2.8, Bryant argues that differential access is a feature of the SRS rather than of the perceptual or linguistic systems. Are we to assume from this wording that involvement of the SRS is REQUIRED in order to produce differential access? If so, is the SRS invoked on-line and from the beginning, during early processes of attention and learning? My guess, from Bryant's arguments and from previous research results (e.g., Logan, 1991), is that he would say yes.

1.4 Another aspect of Bryant's SRS that I'm curious to know more about concerns his arguments (paragraphs 3.3 & 3.4) for the use of absolute coordinate systems. First, is this restricted to absolute representation? It doesn't seem hard to find cases in which absolute positions of objects in allocentric or egocentric space are not known but relative positions are. (This would be more common for described than for perceived space.) But subjects can presumably form a spatial representation in such cases. Would Bryant argue that in these cases, subjects default to some arbitrary set of absolute coordinate values for the configuration and take a default perspective on it? Often, too, the distinction between absolute and relative representation becomes blurred, as in the case of egocentrically defined space, where the origin for the absolute scale is an arbitrary and mobile point.

1.5 There are, of course, many other details to be fleshed out, but these strike me as some of the basic ones. The arguments made by Bryant are timely and important, and the questions raised by his manuscript are worthy of pursuit. Here's hoping many more fruitful and funded years of research on spatial cognition can answer some of them.

REFERENCES

Bryant, D.J. (1992) A Spatial Representation System in Humans. PSYCOLOQUY 3 (16) space.1

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.

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.

Franklin, N. (1992). Representation of spatial information in described routes: Distance, turns, and objects. Unpublished manuscript, State University of New York, Stony Brook.

Franklin, N. and 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. Memory & Cognition.

Glenberg, A., Meyer, M. & Lindem, K. (1987). Mental models contribute to foregrounding during text comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language, 26, 69-83.

Hintzman, D., O'Dell, C. & Arndt, D. (1981). Orientation in cognitive maps. Cognitive Psychology, 13, 149-206.

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.

Kosslyn, S., Ball, T. & Reiser, B. (1978). Visual images preserve metric spatial information: Evidence from studies of image scanning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 4, 47-60.

Levine, M., Marchon, I. & Hanley, G. (1984). The placement and misplacement of you-are-here maps. Environment and Behavior, 16, 139-157.

Logan, G.D. (1991). Linguistic and conceptual control of visual spatial attention. Paper presented at the 32nd annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, San Francisco, CA.

Miller, G. A., & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1976.) Language and perception. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Morrow, D., Greenspan, S., & Bower, G. (1987). Accessibility and situation models in narrative comprehension. Journal of Memory and Language, 26, 165-187.


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