Spatial theories identify three aspects of the environment that are used to various degrees in route-learning tasks; namely, landmarks, routes, and configurations. Although research has demonstrated sex differences in the relative predominance of each aspect in route-learning strategies, it is unclear how these sex differences correspond to…

The map is a small-scaled version of the space it represents. It has been argued that children have difficulty interpreting maps because they do not understand scale relations. Recent research has shown that even preschoolers can solve problems that involve scaling in one dimension. This study examined whether early scaling ability extends to…

Recently, the relationship between music and nonmusical cognitive abilities has been highly debated. It has been documented that formal music training would improve verbal, mathematical or visuospatial performance in children. In the experiments described here, we tested if visual perception and imagery abilities were enhanced in adult musicians…

A perceived action can be understood only when information about the action carried out and the objects used are taken into account. It was investigated how spatial and functional information contributes to establishing these relations. Participants observed static frames showing a hand wielding an instrument and a potential target object of the…

The purpose of this article is to explore spatial orientation and wayfinding behavior of newcomers in an unfamiliar environment and to emphasize the importance of landmarks and spatial differentiation in the acquisition of environmental knowledge. One setting with a symmetrical layout and regularly organized, monotonous units on different floors…

Let K be a compact subset of the interior of the unit disk D in the plane and suppose one can't see through the boundary of D and identify K. However, assume that one can take "topological X-rays" of D which measure the "density" of K along the lines of the X-rays. By taking these X-rays from all directions, a "topological MRI" is generated for…

"Back to the Basics: Birmingham, Alabama" is the fourth in a series of workshops that focus on teaching foundational map reading and spatial differentiation skills. It is the second published exercise from the Back to the Basics series developed by the Wetland Education through Maps and Aerial Photography (WETMAAP) Program (see…

This paper investigates spatio-temporal variability during the production of the lingual consonants /t, k, s, x, n, l, "r"/ by four Greek speakers with profound hearing impairment and with differences in the intelligibility of their speech. It examines important factors that have been documented to influence intelligibility, i.e.…

This study compared participants who were congenitally visually impaired and those who became visually impaired later in life in a spatial memory task. The latter showed less efficient visuospatial processes than did the former. However, these differences were of a quantitative nature only, indicating common cognitive mechanisms that can be…

This article presents 3 studies that examine how students and experts employ mental rotation and a learned heuristic to solve chemistry tasks that involve spatial information. Results from Study 1 indicate that despite instruction in analytical strategies, students choose to employ mental rotation on canonical assessment tasks. In Study 2, experts…

When bisecting words in their middle, people reveal leftward bisection errors. This tendency might emerge from an attentional bias towards the beginning of the word. However, when longer meaningless letter strings are presented, people reveal a rightward bisection bias. To test the role of semantic information on leftward or rightward bisection…

It has been proposed that visual recognition memory and certain attentional mechanisms are impaired early in Alzheimer disease (AD). Little is known about visuospatial recognition memory in AD. The crucial role of the hippocampus on spatial memory and its damage in AD suggest that visuospatial recognition memory may also be impaired early. The aim…

Early experience preserves and refines many capabilities that emerge prenatally. Here we describe another role that it plays--establishing the neural substrate for capabilities that emerge at a much later point in development. The evidence comes from sleeper effects: permanent deficits when early experience was absent in capabilities that normally…

Spatially lateralised deficits that typically define the hemispatial neglect syndrome have been shown to co-occur with other non-lateralised deficits of attention, memory, and drawing. However even a simple graphic task involves multiple planning components, including the specification of drawing start position and drawing direction. In order to…

A brief account is given of the evolution of the concept of working memory from a unitary store into a multicomponent system. Four components are distinguished, the phonological loop which is responsible for maintaining speech-based information, the visuospatial sketchpad performing a similar function for visual information, the central executive…