Handbook Of Spatial Cognition

This book, which provides a detailed interdisciplinary overview of spatial cognition from neurological to sociocultural levels, is an accessible resource for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, as well as researchers at all levels who seek to understand our perceptions of the world around us.

Part of a two-volume handbook reviewing the major paradigms used in each of the contributors' research areas of spatial cognition.

This book offers students an introduction to human spatial cognition and experience and is designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students who are interested in the study of maps in the head and the psychology of space. We live in space and space surrounds us. We interact with space all the time, consciously or unconsciously, and make decisions and actions based on our perceptions of that space. Have you ever wondered how some people navigate perfectly using maps in their heads while other people get lost even with a physical map? What do you mean when you say you have a poor "sense of direction"? How do we know where we are? How do we use and represent information about space? This book clarifies that our knowledge and feelings emerge as a consequence of our interactions with the surrounding space, and show that the knowledge and feelings direct, guide, or limit our spatial behavior and experience. Space matters, or more specifically space we perceive matters. Research into spatial cognition and experience, asking fundamental questions about how and why space and spatiality matters to humans, has thus attracted attention. It is no coincidence that the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for research into a positioning system in the brain or "inner GPS" and that spatial information and technology are recognized as an important social infrastructure in recent years. This is the first book aimed at graduate and advanced undergraduate students pursuing this fascinating area of research. The content introduces the reader to the field of spatial cognition and experience with a series of chapters covering theoretical, empirical, and practical issues, including cognitive maps, spatial orientation, spatial ability and thinking, geospatial information, navigation assistance, and environmental aesthetics.

Spatial cognition is a broad field of enquiry, emerging from a wide range of disciplines and incorporating a wide variety of paradigms that have been employed with human and animal subjects. This volume is part of a two- volume handbook reviewing the major paradigms used in each of the contributors' research areas.; This volume considers the issues of neurophysiological aspects of spatial cognition, the assessment of cognitive spatial deficits arising from neural damage in humans and animals, and the observation of spatial behaviours in animals in their natural habitats.; This handbook should be of interest to new and old students alike. The student new to spatial research can be brought up-to- speed with a particular range of techniques, made aware of the background and pitfalls of particular approaches, and directed toward useful sources. For seasoned researchers, the handbook provides a rapid scan of the available tools that they might wish to consider as alternatives when wishing to answer a particular "spatial" research problem.

Rev. ed. of: Comparative cognition. 2006.

Publisher Description

This comprehensive Handbook summarizes existing work and presents new concepts and empirical results from leading scholars in the multidisciplinary field of behavioral and cognitive geography, the study of the human mind, and activity in and concerning space, place, and environment. It provides the broadest and most inclusive coverage of the field so far, including work relevant to human geography, cartography, and geographic information science.

Looking at the ways humans perceive, interpret, remember, and interact with events occurring in space, this book focuses on two aspects of spatial cognition: How does spatial cognition develop? What is the relation between spatial cognition and the brain? This book offers a unique opportunity to share the combined efforts of scientists from varied disciplines, including cognitive and developmental psychology, neuropsychology, behavioral neurology, and neurobiology in the process of interacting and exchanging ideas. Based on a conference held at the Neuroscience Conference Center of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, this book explores current scientific trends seeking a biological basis for understanding the relationships among brain, mind, and behavior.