This book, which provides a detailed interdisciplinary overview of spatial cognition from neurological to sociocultural levels, is an accessible resource for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, as well as researchers at all levels who seek to understand our perceptions of the world around us.

This book offers students an introduction to human spatial cognition and experience and is designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students who are interested in the study of maps in the head and the psychology of space. We live in space and space surrounds us. We interact with space all the time, consciously or unconsciously, and make decisions and actions based on our perceptions of that space. Have you ever wondered how some people navigate perfectly using maps in their heads while other people get lost even with a physical map? What do you mean when you say you have a poor "sense of direction"? How do we know where we are? How do we use and represent information about space? This book clarifies that our knowledge and feelings emerge as a consequence of our interactions with the surrounding space, and show that the knowledge and feelings direct, guide, or limit our spatial behavior and experience. Space matters, or more specifically space we perceive matters. Research into spatial cognition and experience, asking fundamental questions about how and why space and spatiality matters to humans, has thus attracted attention. It is no coincidence that the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for research into a positioning system in the brain or "inner GPS" and that spatial information and technology are recognized as an important social infrastructure in recent years. This is the first book aimed at graduate and advanced undergraduate students pursuing this fascinating area of research. The content introduces the reader to the field of spatial cognition and experience with a series of chapters covering theoretical, empirical, and practical issues, including cognitive maps, spatial orientation, spatial ability and thinking, geospatial information, navigation assistance, and environmental aesthetics.

This book constitutes the second volume documenting the results achieved within a priority program on spatial cognition by the German Science Foundation (DFG).The 28 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and reflect the increased interdisciplinary cooperation in the area. The book is divided into sections on maps and diagrams, motion and spatial reference, spatial relations and spatial inference, navigation in real and virtual spaces, and spatial memory.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Spatial Cognition, SC 2012, held in Kloster Seeon, Germany, in August/September 2012. The 31 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 59 submissions. The conference deals with spatial cognition, biological inspired systems, spatial learning, communication, robotics, and perception.

Looking at the ways humans perceive, interpret, remember, and interact with events occurring in space, this book focuses on two aspects of spatial cognition: How does spatial cognition develop? What is the relation between spatial cognition and the brain? This book offers a unique opportunity to share the combined efforts of scientists from varied disciplines, including cognitive and developmental psychology, neuropsychology, behavioral neurology, and neurobiology in the process of interacting and exchanging ideas. Based on a conference held at the Neuroscience Conference Center of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, this book explores current scientific trends seeking a biological basis for understanding the relationships among brain, mind, and behavior.

The relationships between perception and imagery, imagery and spatial processes, memory and action: These are the main themes of this text The interest of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience on imagery and spatial cognition is remarkably increased in the last decades. Different areas of research contribute to the clarification of the multiple cognitive processes subserving spatial perception and exploration, and to the definition of the neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning these cognitive functions. The aim of this book is to provide the reader (post-graduate students as well as experts) with a complete overview of this field of research. It illustrates the way how brain, behaviour and cognition interact in normal and pathological subjects in perceiving, representing and exploring space. (Series B).

First published in 1985. The present book represents a statement of the state of the art in a very important aspect of spatial cognition, its development.