The proposed research is aimed at an understanding of how two basic modes of using and gathering spatial information are coordinated. Primary spatial activity registers a relation to the immediate spatial surrounds, and updates that relation as one moves. Secondary spatial activity deals with that same information in a more indirect way, typically in symbolic form. Four projects will apply this distinction to different aspects of human spatial behavior, to extend our understanding of primary and secondary uses of spatial information and to test several counter-intuitive predictions based on that distinction. The studies will draw on several methodologies with both children and adults. Project I identifies factors that lead both children and adults to treat spatial information as a primary spatial experience versus an abstract, secondary experience (which lead to different types of spatial representation). Project II investigates ways in which primary orientation to the immediate surrounds both limits and facilitates abstract, secondary spatial reasoning. In addition, the factors that facilitate the coordination of primary and secondary meanings of spatial symbols are examined, both with respect to map use (Project III) and in the use of symbols in spatial reasoning tasks (Project IV). The long-term goal of the work is to provide converging evidence about the coordination of primary and secondary uses of spatial information in order to build a more comprehensive theory of spatial behavior.
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| Presson, C C; DeLange, N; Hazelrigg, M D (1987) Orientation-specificity in kinesthetic spatial learning: the role of multiple orientations. Mem Cognit 15:225-9 |
