Abstract:

How are the locations and spatial relations of objects in the environments represented in memory has been a hot issue investigated and disputed in spatial cognition research. Previous works on four features of spatial representation including spatial reference frames, orientation specificity, structure of organization, and represented contents are reviewed in this paper. The ecological validity problem in laboratory research and the trends of incorporating virtual reality (VR) and neuroimaging techniques in spatial representation research are discussed based on the review

Key words: spatial representation, spatial reference frames, orientation specificity, route knowledge, survey or configuration knowledge