Mind and Maze Ann Sloan Devlin, 2001 Preetha Lakshmi Chris Mueller CSCI 8715 Professor Shashi Shekhar

Themes in Spatial Cognition - chunking: people separate spatial information into aggregate chunks to help with processing - landmarks: current models suggest that landmarks, and relationships among landmarks, form the basis for how we think about space

Development of Spatial Cognition - Spatial understanding develops over time; children are usually thought to be more egocentric in their understanding - Recent research shows that young children perform spatial tasks better with objects or people they recognize. e.g. “Mother as Landmark” experiment - Proposed model for spatial understanding: 1. landmarks are learned first 2. routes: relationships between landmarks 3. routes are built into networks

Neurophysiology of Spatial Cognition Neuron structure supports cognition of relative directional motion based on strength of synaptic activity in “head direction cells” Hippocampus neuronal structures also exist that track relative translational distance measurements; stored in repeating orthogonal grids of “place cells” (torus topology) Grids of place cells are uniquely patterned to match unique environments; upon entering a new environment, a new grid is created, but existing patterns are used for previously visited environments. (O'Keefe 1978)‏ (McNaughton, et al 2006)‏ neuron firings indicate grid patterns

Movement and self-motion - Movement through an environment is critical for spatial understanding, especially compared to film or slides of a space - Self-motion promotes better spatial understanding than other forms of movement - Virtual 3d tours of spaces have proven effective for developing a spatial understanding

Natural Language and Spatial Cognition Natural language plays an important role in communicating spatial information Hemispherical brain division: - left brain processes complex spatial information and visual interpretation - right brain processes simple spatial tasks e.g. line orientation Language is processed in left brain, where it might be closely related to complex spatial cognitive tasks