Spatial Cognition Mini-Review

The system consists of the eyes where the information is collected, geniculate lateral nucleus and visual cortex. The visual cortex could be subdivided into the primary visual cortex and the striate cortex. This sensory system is located at the back of a brain parts of which are located in both hemispheres. Recent studies obtained a sufficient amount of information in order to construct the two-stream hypothesis, which describes the ventral and dorsal streams. The ventral stream begins at the primary visual cortex and goes to the inferior temporal cortex. Main functional responsibilities of this area include identification of objects and the emergence of the long-term memory the origins of which are placed in this area (Rauschecker, Josef P and Sophie K. Scott 722). Dorsal stream also begins at the primary visual cortex and ends at the posterior parietal cortex. It is mainly responsible for the body part control required in order to manipulate an object. The research shows that these "what" and "why" systems are not directly related, and the damage in one affect the other only to a certain extent. It could be explained by the fact that that input is transformed differently via action and

One of the main reasons that Tolman chose to execute this study was because he wanted to prove that rats could be studied in the same manner as humans when it came to cognitive processes; Tolman suggested that there was no need to study these processes directly when the mental processes themselves could be observed through the behavior of the organism, like how a rat may act when using a cognitive map––a mental layout of the environment that an organism uses to navigate itself from one destination to another.

From six to eight months of age, a large proportion of Chris’s waking hours are spent exploring objects of interest. However, prior to his gaining mobility, he must utilize a great deal of cognitive function to do this in the absence of certain motor skills. Chris’s skill in one particular cognitive domain, attention maintenance, emerges when he tries to reach desired objects and underlies growth in other aspects of cognitive development, such as cause-and-effect, spatial relationships, and problem solving. Regardless of Chris’s success in autonomously reaching the object, the process of trying to complete his goal exercises these cognitive skills.

Evidence for space-based attention comes primarily from a variety of cuing tasks, which assume that reaction time for detecting a target indicates processing efficiency. Since attention enhances processing efficiency, one would expect that reaction times are faster for attended features, and slower for unattended ones. For example, Posner (1980) showed that target letters were identified more quickly when they had been pre-cued by a dot in the same location. This suggests that attention was directed at the cued region of space. Egly and Homa (1984) used a task in which a general circular area was pre-cued. They found that stimulus detection was

In the experiment, students conditioned planaria to either avoid or approach light. The process included a learning phase and a memory phase for both experiments 1 and 2. The planaria were placed in a plywood track to be trained. Conditioning for approach light was done by shining the light on the planaria for 30 seconds and then turning the light off. When the light was off, air was blown at the heads of the planaria so that they turned around. This process was repeated and trials were recorded for when the planaria turned on their own without the puff of air. The same process was done for conditioning the planaria to avoid light, except the planaria received puffs of air to the head with the light shining on them. The second portion

Researchers has identified other types of cells that further aid in the coding of cognitive maps. Grid cells, head direction cells, and border cells are all three cells that aid in the way people and animals find their way around. Wayfinding is a kind of navigation in which we take route that usually involves making turns. Our ability to get from one place to another may seem simple, especially for routes we have traveled many times. Wayfinding may be complicated to others, while it could also be simple. One difference in wayfinding can be traced to experience and how well you know the route. According to Carolyn Gregorie, studies have shown that men have a better sense of direction than women do. Previous studies including many decades old experiments on rats in mazes, have shown that men tend to outperform women on tasks requiring spatial awareness and wayfinding. Men are found to use cardinal directions more in their navigation meaning, men tend to use a “world-centered strategy,” going in the general direction of where something is

The participants for this study were recruited from a Spring 2013 Experimental Psychology Undergraduate Course at Queens College, City University of New York. The research study was IRB approved and the participants for this study were not compensated. However, by remaining in the course, the students gave consent to participate in all studies. There were a total of 22 participants, 20 being females and two males. The participants consisted of 21 right-handed individuals and one left-handed. The mean age was 21.09 years, and the standard deviation for age was 1.02.

Hippocampus does not encode the location by the tracking distance and the direction movement. The Direction and distance to the place they need to go is encoded. The brain has its own way of finding there navigational own goal-finding cells. Humans and animals, both of our brains help us find where we need to go and becomes very clear. Scientists know that mammals' brains have three different cell types that help navigate. The animal cells work in the brain and work together to help keep the location and movement they are making. New researchers have discovered two more types of brain cells that also help with navigating around space areas. They have found unrecognized structures in the brain that has to find their way

1. Nicky Clayton, an experimental psychologist at UC Davis, observed a group of jays during a lunch break. She noticed that they frequently changed their hiding places for the food that they stole from the students. The frequency at which they did this, and how they tried to avoid being watched by other birds suggests that they moved the food to keep other birds from finding it. If they did not think about what the other jays thought, they would not go to such lengths to keep the other jays from reaching their food. Furthermore, they remembered specifically which birds had watched them cache. The birds went to great measures to ensure that other birds had no knowledge of where they put their food (waiting until the other birds were distracted,

This study by Gray et al. explored how a 2D framework of mind perception could be used to further our understanding of psychopathology. They have done so by examining the interaction between the two dimensions of mind perception: agency (e.g. capacity for conscious control) and experience (e.g. capacity for feelings), with three subclinical syndromes: autism-spectrum disorder, schizotypy, and psychopathy. By reviewing current literatures, a distinct profile of under- and overperception of agency and/or experience was speculated for each syndrome. Specifically, Gray et al. hypothesized that people high in autism spectrum would be characterized by underperception of agency in adult human, people high in schizotypy would overperceive mind in non-human targets, and people with psychopathic tendencies would underperceive experience in living beings. The Mind survey was adopted to assess participants ' mind ascription profiles, in which they have rate their perception of nine targeted entities. It could be inferred from the study that beside the rather miscellaneous target Superman, a typical individual without tendency for disorders would perceive those entities according to 4 categories: being capable of both agency and experience (man and woman), being capable of mainly experience (baby and dog), being capable of mainly agency (God and robot) and being capable of neither (tree and dead woman). Moreover, participants were required to complete web versions of the Autism-spectrum

Animals navigate the world with different types of cues either allocentric or egocentric (Tornick). Allocentric cues are external, such as visual cues or a beacon (tornick). Egocentric cues are cues within the animal such as vestibular systems (Tornick).

The Loci method, although known by many names, in some places it has become a naturally integrated aspect or characteristic. Memory is not something that is defined by intelligence, but generally through the combination of it and spatial memory. Spatial Memory is the part of memory responsible for recording information about one's environment and spatial orientation. It's normally used to navigate through places like cities, which coincides with the application of the loci method. This could also be used to attribute to the fact why this was so popular, since the use of spatial memory is

When it comes to visual-spatial abilities, it is thought that males are better than girls. They can rotate objects better in their minds, are better at things like engineering and mathematics. Females are good at empathizing and listening, more likely to choose professions in the arts rather than sciences. It was thought that these differences were due to the fact that our brains are wired differently, that our hormones controlled more than we thought. However, that is not the case it seems. There seems to be no significant results that gender differences in visual-spatial abilities are innate but rather socialized through practice and training and gender schemas.

This research shows that the perception of the spatial layout of an environment is influenced by the energetic resources available for movement within it. The findings are consistent with the view that spatial perceptions are influenced by bio energetic factors. Researchers measured individual differences in factors related to bio energetic state, such as fatigue, sleep quality, fitness, mood, and stress. Previous research has shown that hills appear steeper to those who are fatigued & restricted, due to a lack of physical fitness, age (EX: the elderly) or those who are in declining health. The prevailing interpretation of this research is that individual observer’s perceptions of the environment are influenced by their capacity to

An example of the population coding that is presented within the paper is “place cells” within rats. We are able to use these cells to show the animals location with regards to a centred reference frame in the surrounding environment of the rat. In this experiment, they use a small maze, each area is characterized by one of these “place cells”. Within this area there is a small region of the maze that is triggered and sends a response. Through observing the rats, they saw that there was a spatial overlap between the fields and thus, they concluded that the cells would respond to any location that they are given. They also found that visual features were also encoded within these population codes, for example, orientation, colour, direction of motion, and depth. So far, it has been shown that our environmental influences effect our behaviour so heavily. Population encoding is very strongly rooted, if one cell is damaged it won’t affect the already encoded representation. Just as if one part of a computer goes, most of the time the remaining parts of the device