A recent study hypothesized a configurational anisotropy in the face inversion effect, with vertical relations more difficult to process. However, another difference in the stimuli of that report was that the vertical but not horizontal shifts lacked local spatial references. Difficulty processing long-range spatial relations might also be…

Some individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome exhibit strengths in solving jigsaw puzzles. We compared visuospatial ability and jigsaw puzzle performance and strategies of 26 persons with Prader-Willi syndrome and 26 MA-matched typically developing controls. Individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome relied on piece shape. Those in the control group…

Four-year-olds' sensitivity to differences among faces in the spacing of features was tested under 4 task conditions: judging distinctiveness when the external contour was visible and when it was occluded, simultaneous match-to-sample, and recognizing the face of a friend. In each task, the foil differed only in the spacing of features, and…

Understanding the dynamics of memory change is one of the current challenges facing cognitive neuroscience. Recent animal work on memory reconsolidation shows that memories can be altered long after acquisition. When reactivated, memories can be modified and require a restabilization (reconsolidation) process. We recently extended this finding to…

This study investigated, in children aged 6-13 years, how different components of the working memory (WM) system (short-term storage and executive processes), within both verbal and visuospatial domains, relate to fluid intelligence. We also examined the degree of domain-specificity of the WM components as well as the differentiation of storage…

This paper discusses the teaching of the values of space, and the development of sustainable regions, as viewed through a prism of values, and which should become an integral part of the geography curriculum. The author is convinced that new methodologies for the teaching of space-related topics in primary and secondary schools across Europe…

A critical question in Cognitive Science concerns how knowledge of specific domains emerges during development. Here we examined how limitations of the visual system during the first days of life may shape subsequent development of face processing abilities. By manipulating the bands of spatial frequencies of face images, we investigated what is…

Being able to reorient to the spatial environment after disorientation is a basic adaptive challenge. There is clear evidence that reorientation uses geometric information about the shape of the surrounding space. However, there has been controversy concerning whether use of geometry is a modular function, and whether use of features is dependent…

Three experiments investigated the roles of intrinsic directions of a scene and observer's viewing direction in recognizing the scene. Participants learned the locations of seven objects along an intrinsic direction that was different from their viewing direction and then recognized spatial arrangements of three or six of these objects from…

The Corsi Block-Tapping Task measures visuospatial short-term and working memory, but a standardized backward condition is lacking. The authors present a standardized backward procedure that was examined in 246 healthy older adults (ages 50 to 92), comparing the results with the Digit Span subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Third…

Despite that fact that landmarks play a prominent role in human navigation, experimental evidence on how landmarks are selected and defined by human navigators remains elusive. Indeed, the concept of a "landmark" is itself not entirely clear. In everyday language, the term landmark refers to salient, distinguishable, and usually nameable objects,…

Research concerning the spatial dimension "fit" ("tight" versus "loose") has been based on a tacit but untested assumption that the dimension "fit" is symmetrical, with tight- and loose-fitting relations highlighting the dimension "fit" with equal force. We propose a reformulation, documenting that adult speakers of English (Experiment 1) and…

Four dual-task experiments examined visuospatial, articulatory, and central executive working memory involvement during the development and application of spatial mental models. In Experiments 1 and 2 participants read route and survey spatial descriptions while undertaking one of four secondary tasks targeting working memory components.…

Two experiments investigated infants' ability to localize tactile sensations in peripersonal space. Infants aged 10 months (Experiment 1) and 6.5 months (Experiment 2) were presented with vibrotactile stimuli unpredictably to either hand while they adopted either a crossed- or uncrossed-hands posture. At 6.5 months, infants' responses were…

The authors investigated the calibration of reach distance by gradually distorting the haptic feedback obtained when participants grasped visible target objects. The authors found that the modified relationship between visually specified distance and reach distance could be captured by a straight-line mapping function. Thus, the relation could be…