Mental spatial transformations of objects and perspective

This study sought evidence for the independenceof two classes of mental spatialtransformation: object-based spatialtransformations and egocentric perspectivetransformations. Two tasks were designed toselectively elicit these two transformationsusing the same materials, participants, andtask parameters: one required same-differentjudgments about pairs of pictures, while theother required left-right judgments aboutsingle pictures. For pictures of human bodies,the two tasks showed strikingly differentpatterns of response time as a function ofstimulus orientation. Moreover, acrossindividuals, the two tasks had differentrelationships to psychometric tests of spatialability. The chronometric and individualdifference data converge withneuropsychological and neuroimaging data insuggesting that different mental spatialtransformations are performed by dissociableneural systems.     

Planning for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

The Group on Earth Observations was established to promote comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained Earth observations. Its mandate is to implement the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) in accord with the GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan and Reference Document. During the months over which the GEOSS Implementation Plan was developed, many issues surfaced and were addressed. This article discusses several of the more interesting or challenging of those issues—e.g. fitting in with existing organizations and securing stable funding—some of which have yet to be resolved fully as of this writing. Despite the relatively short period over which the Implementation Plan had to be developed, there is a good chance that the work undertaken will be influential for decades to come.