Department of Psychology, Durham University, Science Site, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK.
Cogn Process. 2021 Sep;22(Suppl 1):69-75. doi: 10.1007/s10339-021-01052-3. Epub 2021 Aug 19.
Our experience of the world seems to unfold seamlessly in a unitary 3D space. For this to be possible, the brain has to merge many disparate cognitive representations and sensory inputs. How does it do so? I discuss work on two key combination problems: coordinating multiple frames of reference (e.g. egocentric and allocentric), and coordinating multiple sensory signals (e.g. visual and proprioceptive). I focus on two populations whose spatial processing we can observe at a crucial stage of being configured and optimised: children, whose spatial abilities are still developing significantly, and naïve adults learning new spatial skills, such as sensing distance using auditory cues. The work uses a model-based approach to compare participants' behaviour with the predictions of alternative information processing models. This lets us see when and how-during development, and with experience-the perceptual-cognitive computations underpinning our experiences in space change. I discuss progress on understanding the limits of effective spatial computation for perception and action, and how lessons from the developing spatial cognitive system can inform approaches to augmenting human abilities with new sensory signals provided by technology.
我们对世界的体验似乎在一个单一的三维空间中无缝展开。为了实现这一点，大脑必须融合许多不同的认知表征和感官输入。它是如何做到的？我讨论了两个关键的组合问题：协调多个参照系（例如，自我中心和非自我中心），以及协调多个感官信号（例如，视觉和本体感觉）。我关注的是两个群体，他们的空间处理能力在配置和优化的关键阶段可以被观察到：儿童，他们的空间能力仍在显著发展，以及天真的成年人学习新的空间技能，例如使用听觉线索感知距离。这项工作使用基于模型的方法将参与者的行为与替代信息处理模型的预测进行比较。这使我们能够看到在何时以及如何——在发展过程中，以及随着经验的积累——支撑我们在空间中体验的感知-认知计算发生了变化。我讨论了理解有效空间计算在感知和行动方面的局限性的进展，以及从发展中的空间认知系统中获得的经验教训如何为利用技术提供的新感官信号来增强人类能力的方法提供信息。
