Spatial Knowledge
Essay by 24 • November 16, 2010 • 623 Words (3 Pages) • 1,089 Views
Spatial Knowledge
Spatial Knowledge
• Spatial representation
• Mental maps - people can navigate with or without maps but learning has been associated with maps such as learning a location by associating it with a landmark
o Large-scale space - map of country, province
o Small-scale space
Representations
• Representations (format that things in external environment are remembered or dealt with in a cognitive system) and referents (outside world)
o How things “out there” are represented in the mind?
• Analog (represents things that are directly related to the outside world) vs. propositional
• An internal (i.e. mental) model of the outside world
o It does not need to resemble the object
o Just preserve the functional operations
o Example: a map is not an exact copy of the outside world (really good maps still leave some information out)
Analog Representations (visuospatial)
• Mimics the character of the real thing
o Vinyl records (analog because it mimics the character of the �real things’ - the sounds that we are expecting to hear) vs. MP3’s
o Example: map of route from Minda’s house too SSC as it mimics the character of the real thing
Propositional (verbal)
• Propositions are statements of fact (not mental images)
• Even spatial information could be propositional
o E.g., computer “represents” picture with binary code
o E.g., Exact directions from Minda’s to SSC
Spatial Knowledge
• The type of representation determines what is easy and hard to do
• Analog
o Representing space with space
o Easy to measure distance
o Can find alternative routes or locations
o Easy to determine relative direction
• Propositions
o Easy to create directions
o Easy to communicate directions
o Easy to refer to locations
Cognitive Map
• Survey map
o Overhead perspective and relative locations
o Quick to learn
o Easy to plan routes
o More like a true analog representation
• Thorndyke & Hayes Roth (1982)
o Learn a floor plan
o Some tasks were easy (estimating distance)
o Others were not easy (pointing to one location while standing in another)
• Route maps
o Knowledge about the route
o Gained from experience
o Requires more time to learn
o Orientation can be difficult
o Resulting knowledge is idiosyncratic (Wang & Spekle, 2002)
Integrations
• Finding 30302 Via Bella, San Juan Capistrano
o My aunt gets lost all the time
o She writes “Do not use mapquest...it will take you to another house in Capistrano Beach.”
o Mapquest gives two directions simultaneously
o I’ve never been there
• A lot of information is integrated into people’s everyday experiences
Large Scale Space
• Maps of large-scale space
o What is our sense of the locations of items in the world?
• Hierarchical representations
o Local space relative to higher order space
o Question: Which is further north - Victoria, BC or Ottawa, ON?
o Victoria BC is the answer but it seems like
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