Department of Psychology, Yale University.
Psychol Sci. 2021 Apr;32(4):573-586. doi: 10.1177/0956797620972373. Epub 2021 Mar 15.
What is the format of spatial representation? In mathematics, we often conceive of two primary ways of representing 2D space, , which capture horizontal and vertical relations, and , which capture angle and distance relations. Do either of these two coordinate systems play a representational role in the human mind? Six experiments, using a simple visual-matching paradigm, show that (a) representational format is recoverable from the errors that observers make in simple spatial tasks, (b) human-made errors spontaneously favor a polar coordinate system of representation, and (c) observers are capable of using other coordinate systems when acting in highly structured spaces (e.g., grids). We discuss these findings in relation to classic work on dimension independence as well as work on spatial representation at other spatial scales.
空间表示的格式是什么？在数学中，我们通常设想两种主要的二维空间表示方式， ，它捕捉水平和垂直关系， ，它捕捉角度和距离关系。这两个坐标系中的任何一个在人类思维中都有代表性吗？六个实验，使用简单的视觉匹配范式，表明 (a) 表示格式可以从观察者在简单空间任务中犯的错误中恢复，(b) 人为错误自发地偏向极坐标系的表示，以及 (c) 当在高度结构化的空间（例如网格）中行动时，观察者能够使用其他坐标系。我们将这些发现与经典的维度独立性研究以及其他空间尺度的空间表示研究联系起来进行讨论。
