Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:38:47.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What counts as the evidence for three-dimensional and four-dimensional spatial representations?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2013

Ranxiao Frances Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820. [email protected]://publish.illinois.edu/franceswang/[email protected]
Whitney N. Street
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820. [email protected]://publish.illinois.edu/franceswang/[email protected]

Abstract

The dimension of spatial representations can be assessed by above-chance performance in novel shortcut or spatial reasoning tasks independent of accuracy levels, systematic biases, mosaic/segmentation across space, separate coding of individual dimensions, and reference frames. Based on this criterion, humans and some other animals exhibited sufficient evidence for the existence of three-dimensional and/or four-dimensional spatial representations.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aflalo, T. N. & Graziano, M. S. (2008) Four-dimensional spatial reasoning in humans. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 34(5):1066–77.Google Scholar
Ambinder, M. S., Wang, R. F., Crowell, J. A., Francis, G. K. & Brinkmann, P. (2009) Human four-dimensional spatial intuition in virtual reality. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 16(5):818–23.Google Scholar
Grah, G., Wehner, R. & Ronacher, B. (2007) Desert ants do not acquire and use a three-dimensional global vector. Frontiers in Zoology 4:12.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, J., Hedges, L. V. & Duncan, S. (1991) Categories and particulars: Prototype effects in estimating spatial location. Psychological Review 98:352–76.Google Scholar
Jovalekic, A., Hayman, R., Becares, N., Reid, H., Thomas, G., Wilson, J. & Jeffery, K. (2011) Horizontal biases in rats' use of three-dimensional space. Behavioural Brain Research 222(2):279–88.Google Scholar
Lappe, M., Bremmer, F. & van den Berg, A. V. (1999) Perception of self-motion from visual flow. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 3(9):329–36.Google Scholar
Loomis, J. M., Klatzky, R. L., Golledge, R. G., Cicinelli, J. G., Pellegrino, J. W. & Fry, P. A. (1993) Nonvisual navigation by blind and sighted: Assessment of path integration ability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 122:7391.Google Scholar
Sampaio, C. & Wang, R. F. (2009) Category-based errors and the accessibility of unbiased spatial memories: A retrieval model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 35(5):1331–37.Google Scholar
Wang, R. F. (2012) Theories of spatial representations and reference frames: What can configuration errors tell us? Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 19(4):575–87.Google Scholar
Wang, R. F. (in press). Human four-dimensional spatial judgments of hyper-volume. Spatial Cognition & Computation: An Interdisciplinary Journal.Google Scholar
Wang, R. F. & Brockmole, J. R. (2003) Human navigation in nested environments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 29:398404.Google Scholar
Wang, R. F. & Cutting, J. E. (1999) A probabilistic model for recovering camera translation. Computer Vision and Image Understanding 76:205–12.Google Scholar
Wang, R. F. & Spelke, E. S. (2000) Updating egocentric representations in human navigation. Cognition 77:215–50.Google Scholar
Wang, R. F. & Spelke, E. S. (2003) Comparative approaches to human navigation. In: The neurobiology of spatial behaviour, ed. Jeffery, K., pp. 119–43. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, P., Foreman, N., Stanton, D. & Duffy, H. (2004) Memory for targets in a multilevel simulated environment: Evidence for vertical asymmetry in spatial memory. Memory and Cognition 32(2):283–97.Google Scholar