Coordinating signs and eye gaze in the depiction of directions and spatial scenes by fluent and L2 signers of Norwegian Sign Language

The current study investigates the coordination of signs and eye gaze during depictions of directions and spatial scenes by fluent and second language (L2) signers of Norwegian Sign Language. First, findings show that fluent and L2 signers make different choices regarding the perspective they use to depict spatial scenes. Second, there is variation within and across groups in relation to how eye gaze is directed during these depictions. Findings suggest that eye gaze is used to establish a vantage point upon a depicted scene, but L2 learners may not always engage in this type of coordination. This study contributes to our understanding of how visual perspective is depicted in signed languages and has implications for signed language pedagogy.     

Seeing the Forest or the Trees? Shifting Categorical Effects in Map Memory

People use spatial and nonspatial information to structure memory for an environment. Two experiments explored interactions between spatial and social categories on map memory when mediated by retrieval (Experiment 1) and encoding (Experiment 2) demands. Participants studied a map depicting business locations (including proprietors' race). In Experiment 1, participants completed two memory tasks, one globally focused and the other locally focused. The global task compressed, while the local task expanded, within-category similarity. Furthermore, processing styles carried over to the subsequent task. Experiment 2 emphasized either the spatial or social category during encoding, which increased that category's weighting in memory. These results extend the work of Maddox, Rapp, Brion, and Taylor, suggesting that retrieval and encoding demands can shift how these categories affect spatial memory.     

The Psychological Validity of Qualitative Spatial Reasoning in One Dimension

One of the central questions of spatial reasoning research is whether the underlying processes are inherently visual, spatial, or logical. We applied the dual task interference paradigm to spatial reasoning problems in one dimension, using Allen's interval calculus, in order to make progress towards resolving this argument. Our results indicate that spatial reasoning with interval relations is largely based on the construction and inspection of qualitative spatial representations, or mental models, while no evidence for logical proofs of derivations or the involvement of visual representations and processes was found.     

Choosing partners for a manned mission to Mars

Who are the best partners for a US manned mission to Mars? Arguments have been made for a joint US-Soviet manned mission which would improve relations between the superpowers and prevent the weaponization of space. However, from the viewpoint of the US space advocate, the issue is which is the most expeditious way to get humans to Mars. Let's go to Mars, the author argues, but with allies and friends rather than the USA's primary competitor on Earth.     

Transformations and representations supporting spatial perspective taking

Spatial perspective taking is the ability to reason about spatial relations relative to another’s viewpoint. Here, we propose a mechanistic hypothesis that relates mental representations of one’s viewpoint to the transformations used for spatial perspective taking. We test this hypothesis using a novel behavioral paradigm that assays patterns of response time and variation in those patterns across people. The results support the hypothesis that people maintain a schematic representation of the space around their body, update that representation to take another’s perspective, and thereby to reason about the space around their body. This is a powerful computational mechanism that can support imitation, coordination of behavior, and observational learning.     

Young Children's Perception of Diagrammatic Representations

Diagrams and pictorial representations are common in children's lives and require abstraction away from visual perception. In three experiments, we investigated 4- to 8-year-olds’ comprehension of such representations. In Experiment 1 (N = 80), children were shown photographs of geometric objects and asked to choose the corresponding line drawing from among sets of four, or vice versa. Results showed considerable developmental progression, especially around age 6. Experiment 2 (N = 16) ruled out that 4-year-olds’ difficulties were due to problems with the visual matching task itself. Experiment 3 (N = 32) showed comparable performance for matching diagrams to 3D objects rather than to photographs. Findings suggest increasing understanding of diagrammatic representations around the time of school entry.     

Revisiting Perspective-Taking: Can People Maintain Imagined Perspectives?

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to examine whether people can adopt and maintain imagined perspectives in the absence of target information. The task used entailed providing information about an imagined perspective in advance of target information to examine whether this would facilitate perspective-taking performance and reduce or eliminate alignment effects that are commonly reported in the literature. The three experiments employed different types of spatial environments: an environment learned from navigating a computer screen (Experiment 1), and an immersive environment that was either remote (Experiment 2) or immediate (Experiment 3) at the time of retrieval. Across the three experiments, results showed that information about an imagined perspective can be utilized ahead of target information. Furthermore, they suggested that alignment effects can be reduced as a result of processing information about perspective ahead of target information, but only when reasoning about specific nonimmediate spatial relations (Experiments 1 and 2). Results are discussed in connection with previous findings on spatial updating and the organizational structure of spatial memory.     

Spatial Influence of Environmental Axes in a Baseball Field

Abstract

We investigated the influence of environmental axes in a baseball field. In Experiment 1, participants walked either a path in the prototypical orientation (home plate to second base) or one which was rotated 225°. Recall for object locations was best when participants imagined themselves aligned with axes salient from the experienced orientation. In Experiment 2, when learning was through a route text, there was less of an influence of environmental axes. In Experiment 3, when participants walked both paths, memories were good for the atypical orientation, suggesting that task-specific spatial cues can be more influential than a prior conceptual north.     

Multiple Systems for Spatial Imagery: Transformations of Objects and Bodies

Problem-solving often requires imagining spatial changes. Object-based transformations allow imagining an object in a different orientation. Perspective transformations allow imagining changes in one's viewpoint. Three experiments tested the hypothesis that these two transformations are dissociable and specialized for different situations, by manipulating instructions and task parameters and measuring response times, errors, and introspective reports. Human experience with small objects such as telephones and clothes irons consists mostly of manipulation or observed manipulation, which is characterized by object-based transformations. Consistent with this experience, when participants made judgments about small manipulable objects, they showed a strong tendency to use object-based transformations. Experience with human bodies is more varied, including both object-like interactions and interactions in which one must estimate another's perspective. Accordingly, when making judgments about pictures of bodies, participants' selection of a spatial transformation depended on the type of judgment that needed to be made. When instructions violated these natural mappings, performance was impaired. These data argue for the view that multiple spatial transformation systems evolved to solve different spatial reasoning problems.     

Prioritized Spatial Updating in the Intrinsic Frame of Reference

In order to maintain valid situation awareness, people need to update the spatial representations of their surroundings as objects, including themselves, move. The present study investigates the properties of spatial updating in the intrinsic frame of reference, where spatial relations are represented with respect to an external object (other than the viewer self) with an intrinsic reference direction. Three experiments were conducted using a task of direction pointing. It was found that given a relatively stable intrinsic reference direction, responses to a small number of salient objects were faster than responses to non-salient objects (Experiment 1 and Experiment 3). The salience effect disappeared when the intrinsic reference direction was no longer stable (Experiment 2). Furthermore, all three experiments revealed a type of orientation dependence similar to that found in egocentric spatial updating. Our results indicate that spatial updating in the intrinsic reference system can be easy only if a fixed reference direction is maintained and the number of objects that need to be tracked is limited.     

View makes a difference: Presenting human figures from the back or front affects mental spatial transformations of children and adults

Previous research suggested that performance in spatial judgments involving rotated human figures is poorer if these figures are presented from the front than from the back. We further investigated this effect, controlling for visible facial information in front and back view by presenting figures' faces as profile. Children's and adults' judgments were still faster and less error prone if figures were presented from the back. Moreover, reaction times indicated that participants did not mentally rotate figures in front view. Children performed overall more poorly than adults, but there were also qualitative differences suggesting that children are more susceptible to embodiment effects than adults. This study underlines that embodiment may have differential effects in spatial transformation tasks, enhancing or impairing performance.     

Egocentric frames of reference used for the retrieval of survey knowledge learned by map and navigation

Two experiments are reported that use a ``point-to-unseen-targets' task to study the role of egocentric reference frames in the retrieval of survey knowledge learned from either studying a map or navigating an environment. In Experiment 1, performance was generally consistent with the hypothesis that map knowledge is retrieved using a frame of reference centered on the eye, characterized by (a) a fixed orientation in a ``frontal representational plane' and (b) equal access to spatial relations both in front of, or above, and behind, or below, a right-left retrieval axis. The results of Experiment 2 were consistent with the hypothesis that environment knowledge is retrieved within a frame of reference centered on the body, characterized by (a) flexible orientation within a ``transverse representational plane' and (b) privileged access to spatial relations located in front of the right-left retrieval axis in representational space. Both types of knowledge function as if they preserve information about the Euclidean angles connecting elements in physical space.     

Learning Spatial Localization: From Rat Studies to Computational Models of the Hippocampus

In his landmark article, Richard Morris (1981) introduced a set of rat experiments intended “to demonstrate that rats can rapidly learn to locate an object that they can never see, hear, or smell provided it remains in a fixed spatial location relative to distal room cues” (p. 239). These experimental studies have greatly impacted our understanding of rat spatial cognition. In this article, we address a spatial cognition model primarily based on hippocampus place cell computation where we extend the prior Barrera–Weitzenfeld model (2008) intended to allow navigation in mazes containing corridors. The current work extends beyond the limitations of corridors to enable navigation in open arenas where a rat may move in any direction at any time. The extended work reproduces Morris's rat experiments through virtual rats that search for a hidden platform using visual cues in a circular open maze analogous to the Morris water maze experiments. We show results with virtual rats comparing them to Morris's original studies with rats.     

Context Affects Scale Selection for Proximity Terms

Abstract

Spatial proximity terms, such as near and far, communicate information regarding the distance in which a “located” object can be found with respect to a “reference” object. The present paper investigates whether people take into account the location of an object extraneous to the located object and reference object pair, when setting the scale for proximity language judgements. Across three experiments participants rated the appropriateness of near and far to describe spatial scenes that included a third (distractor) object positioned the same distance as the located object from the reference object, but at varying distances from the located object. The results show that the presence of other spatial relations affects scale setting, resulting in differences in appropriateness ratings for those spatial terms.     

Function,geometry and spatial prepositions: Three experiments

In this paper the results of three experiments are reported whichaddress the issue of the relative extent to which functionalrelations versus geometric relations affect spatial language. Theexperiments examine the role of a discourse context on the useand rating of the preposition in to describe a visual scenewhere the constraint of spatial containment between figure(object located) and ground (reference object) does not hold. Allthree experiments demonstrate that in is used more andrated to be significantly more appropriate in a functionalcontext than in a no context condition. The implications of thesestudies for spatial language and spatial representation arediscussed.     

Reasoning about Depth and Motion from an Observer's Viewpoint

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to present a logic-based formalism for representing knowledge about objects in space and their movements, and show how this knowledge could be built up from the viewpoint of an observer immersed in a dynamic world. In this paper space is represented using functions that extract attributes of depth, size and distance from snapshots of the world. These attributes compose a novel spatial reasoning system named Depth Profile Calculus (DPC). Transitions between qualitative relations involving these attributes are represented by an extension of this calculus called Dynamic Depth Profile Calculus (DDPC). We argue that knowledge about objects in the world could be built up via a process of abduction on DDPC relations.     

Verb Semantics Affects the Interpretation of Spatial Prepositions

Abstract

Spatial prepositions, more specifically projective prepositions, such as in front of or behind can be interpreted in different ways. Their interpretation depends on the spatial perspective taken as the basis for determining the reference frame's orientation. In 3 series of placement experiments with German speakers, we examined whether the interpretation of projective prepositions in a motion context is affected by the verb used in a spatial instruction. Results suggest that verb semantics is a factor accounting for previously observed seemingly social-situational differences in the interpretation of projective prepositions. Specifically, the findings indicate that, relative to a car as reference object, the semantic aspect of motion interruption associated with some verbs leads to a higher proportion of deictic interpretations determined by the direction from which one is approaching the car. This verb effect on the interpretation of spatial prepositions can be explained by an activation of the temporal dimension through stop-implying verbs, which is integrated into the spatial situation model of the perceived dynamic scene making the deictic frame of reference more compatible. The experimental evidence also shows that verb semantics can account for previously unexplained cross-linguistic differences, and is related to patterns concerning the prepositional inventory of languages.