Spatial cognition

Holes are a good example of the sort of entity that down-to-earth philosophers would be inclined to expel from their ontological inventory. In this work we argue instead in favor of their existence and explore the consequences of this liberality—odd as they might appear. We examine the ontology of holes, their geometry, their part-whole relations, their identity and their causal role, the ways we perceive them. We distinguish three basic kinds of holes: blind hollows, perforating tunnels, and internal cavities, treating these uniformly as immaterial bodies. We develop a morphology of holes, focusing on the way a hole can be filled, and then look at the main properties of the resulting conceptual framework: holes are parasitic upon the surfaces of their hosts; holes can move, fuse into each other, split; they can be born, develop, and die. Finally, we examine how some morphological features of holes are represented in perception, including the conditions whereby we have the impression that we see, feel, or even hear a hole. The book has over 150 pictures and is completed by a formal appendix, a section with puzzles and exercises, and a extensive annotated bibliography.

In this chapter, I draw on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy to explore environmental embodiment—the various lived ways, sensorily and motility-wise, that the body in its pre-reflective perceptual presence engages and synchronizes with the world at hand, especially its architectural and environmental aspects. First, I consider Merleau-Ponty’s interpretation of perception, giving particular attention to his claim that perception involves a lived dynamic between perceptual body and world such that aspects of the world—for example, the heavy hardness of a granite block or the cool smoothness of a chrome railing—are known because they immediately evoke in the lived body their experienced qualities.

Second, I consider the architectural and environmental significance of what Merleau-Ponty calls body-subject—pre-reflective corporeal awareness expressed through action and typically in sync with and enmeshed in the physical world in which the action unfolds. I focus on the taken-for-granted sensibility of body-subject to manifest in extended ways over time and space. I ask how routine actions and behaviors of individuals coming together regularly in an environment can transform that environment into a place with a unique dynamic and character—a lived situation I term place ballet. For both perception and body-subject, I consider how qualities of the physical and designable world—for example, materiality, form, and spatiality—contribute to the lived body’s engagement with and actions in the world.

Note: This chapter was written in 2014 for a proposed edited collection on Merleau-Ponty and architecture. Unfortunately, the editors did not find a publisher(though I was never officially informed of this fact). The chapter has been rewritten, revised, and updated; see the above entry: "Merleau-Ponty, Environmental Embodiment, and Place" (2022)
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Cerebellar pathology commonly shows important motor signs and less evident cognitive dysfunction. The ’cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome’ is characterised by impairment on executive function, spatial cognition, language and behaviour. We report the case of a man with acute onset of transitory motor features and severe mental disorders. Cranial CT and brain MRI revealed extended cerebellar lesions. Neuropsychological assessment disclosed deficits of attention, executive function and memory. Auditory event–related potentials showed abnormal P300. These data suggest a pure “cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome” and strengthen the hypothesis of cerebellar cognitive function modulation.

A​ ​ study​ ​ from​ ​ UCLondon​ ​ &​ ​ UniNottingham​ ​ found​ ​ most​ ​ neurons​ ​ in​ ​ the​ ​ brain's​ ​ auditory​ ​ cortex​ ​ detect​ ​ where​ ​ a sound​ ​ is​ ​ coming​ ​ from​ ​ relative​ ​ to​ ​ the​ ​ head,​ ​ but​ ​ some​ ​ are​ ​ actually​ ​ tuned​ ​ to​ ​ a​ ​ sound​ ​ source's​ ​ actual​ ​ position in​ ​ the​ ​ world. The​ ​ PLOS-published​ ​ report​ ​ also​ ​ looked​ ​ at ​ how​ ​ head​ ​ movements​ ​ change​ ​ the​ ​ responses​ ​ of​ ​ neuro-matrices that​ ​ track​ ​ sound​ ​ location.

Article examines how our​ brain's​ ​ routine​ ​ represention of​ ​ sound​ ​ location is​ ​ in​ ​ either​ ​ an​ ​ egocentric​ ​ manner​ ​ –​ ​ for​ ​ example,​ ​ to​ ​ tell​ ​ a​ ​ phone​ ​ is​ ​ ringing to​ ​ one's​ ​ left​ ​ or​ ​ right​ ​ –​ ​ or​ ​ in​ ​ an​ ​ allocentric​ ​ manner​ ​ –​ ​ hearing​ ​ the​ ​ phone​ ​ is​ ​ on​ ​ the​ ​ table.​ ​ ​ ​ However,​ ​ as​ ​ our​ ​ head​ ​ moves neurons​ ​ with​ ​ an​ ​ egocentric​ ​ focus​ ​ expand​ ​ to​ ​ incorporate​ ​ more​ ​ neural-networks​ ​ related​ ​ to​ ​ vision​ ​ and​ ​ balance. This​ ​ expanded​ ​ engagement​ ​ offers​ ​ potential​ ​ to​ ​ improve​ ​ both​ ​ brain​ ​ plasticity​ ​ and​ ​ cognition;​ ​ when​ ​ a​ ​ dynamic influence​ ​ is​ ​ challenging​ ​ our​ ​ neurology​ ​ to​ ​ respond​ ​ differently​ ​ (the​ ​ phone's​ ​ position​ ​-​ ​ relative​ ​ to​ ​ the​ ​ ears​ ​-changes).​ ​ ​ ​ While​ ​ the​ ​ allocentric​ ​ neurons​ ​ consistently​ ​ maintain​ ​ their​ ​ response​ ​ level​ ​-​ ​ suggesting​ ​ certain sound-based​ ​ protocols​ ​ would​ ​ be​ ​ more​ ​ conducive​ ​ for​ ​ relaxation​ ​ and​ ​ meditative​ ​ practice. 

While we often hear sounds presented through earphones as being inside our heads, these findings "flesh out" more of the nature of 4th-dimensional facets of sound source algorithms.  More specifically, the acoustics can be crafted by sound designers to incorporate information about body and head movements to create a more robust externally-rendered environment.

At present, spatial sound is rapidly gaining broader recognition as our media are moving towards 3-dimensional representations using virtual reality, augmented reality or 360-video technologies. The coming-of-age of a creative discipline opening up ways of expressing and communicating with sound that were not possible before.

Sound is being represented spatially ever more accurately with evolving technologies that takes us beyond a mere reproduction of familiar acoustic reality.  At present, spatial sound is rapidly gaining broader recognition as media moves towards 3-dimensional representations using virtual reality environments/360-video technologies. What's the big deal here?

Research suggests these findings could be helpful in the design of technologies involving extended virtual reality (augmented/mixed) and enhance balance and movement process as well as neuro-rehab therapy.
Spatial sound can inform us about how we relate as human beings to our environment. It also tells us something essential about the inner workings of our perception and consciousness.

More than anything it explores the ways we experience reality through listening. Such as how the reality we hear is intrinsically based on what we know and assume about the world around us.  As we embody sound in space we’re also embodied by personal memory, can we listen from within? What then do we perceive?

One example is how spatial sound helps interpret facets of a vital link between brain waves and acoustic stimulation called frequency-following responses (FFR).  While FFR hasn't been studied in any great detail (with respect to its therapeutic and clinical utility) an interesting application looked at ​​allocentric and egocentric spatial processing under stress conditions that routinely activate sound processing FFR regions in the brain. 

Consult:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0617/150617-egocentric-hearing

- https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11070  (Cortical contributions to the auditory frequency-following response revealed by MEG) Nature Communications 7, Article number: 11070 (2016) doi:10.1038/ncomms11070

- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14910-y (Real-time Acute Stress Facilitates Allocentric Spatial Processing in a Virtual Fire Disaster) Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 14616 (2017) doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14910-y

- The Journal of CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation (JCR - ISSN  1784-9983). 

Published quarterly, the Journal of CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation (JCR), is unique among academic journals in that it focuses on the rapidly expanding worldwide trend of moving toward technological applications in healthcare.  One of the official journals of the International Association of CyberPsychology, Training, and Rehabilitation (iACToR).

Constructed spatiality and perceived imagery in popular music recordings has been in evidence since the 1930s as " a fundamentally pictorial tradition (…) reverb and echo effects deployed in combination with certain lyrics to render aural vistas " (Doyle, 2004: 32). Spatiality underwent a transformation in the 1950s with echo and reverberation increasingly employed as timbral and rhythmic enhancement to music. By the 1960s, with advances in recording technologies and the emergence of psychedelic music, sound environments openly challenged notions of spatial reality, providing a perceptual bridge between auditory and visual realms. This practice-led enquiry focuses upon the experience of spatio-temporal suspension in popular music recordings. Through praxical engagement with consumer audio technologies, it aims to define a timeless, suspended aesthetic in music and sound, by drawing on neuroscientific research into dynamic forms of vitality in the time-based arts (Stern, 2010) and demonstrating the multimodal nature of these recordings.

The future society may be and most likely
1. A society without human labor
2. A society of free activities and free time
3. A company dreamed of by Heinz von Foerster, Henri Atlan and Ilya Prigogine
Part 1: Development issues of developed countries
1.1 They have already made and updated their industrial revolution, they are:
• A nano computer revolution that will boost the artificial intelligence foundation of automation and robotics (and aggravation of unemployment)
• A biotechnological and genetic revolution
• And to the revolution of the "service economy" where 65% of the active population produces 70% of national wealth (against 29% and 28% for industry and 6% and 2% for agriculture - France). These are the services that pay the most!
1.2 They have new groups - multinationals - and very active and dynamic social networks.
In this case, the future development for these already developed countries will focus on what? Or what is missing - the "almost" - to the development of today's society.
The perception - relatively widespread and fair - of a more technology-centric development - and its legal owners - than on humans feeds this ... but.
To which the question of "what" will bring about the future development of today's society becomes indeed relevant.

By examining the trans-disciplinary neologisms called "terminological junctions" in writings of Arakawa and Gins, one may find adequate conditions for making visible, and perhaps resolving a central paradox in the thinking of Gilles Deleuze, who exhorts us to "forge alliances" across scientific percepts, philosophical concepts and artistic constructs, and yet denies the adequacy of metaphor specifically, and tropes generally, because of the taint of representation and transcendence. Drawing on my earlier work which emphasizes the "agency" of tropes (by reference to Peter Galison and Bruno Latour) I attempt to recuperate tropes from within a Deleuzean frame, through an analysis of of "terminological junctions" as "shocks of thought."

The competence to perceive the spatial surroundings is vital to tasks ranging from catching nearby objects to complex navigation through an unknown environment. Yet, many studies testing the functioning of visually impaired people in spatial tasks reported mixed results. Although the role of vision still remains critical in various aspects for such activities, vision experience is not necessarily needed for productive spatial cognition. The neural plasticity of the remaining modalities can reorganize the human brain to compensate the effects of blindness in order to efficiently implement the spatial cognition for navigating. The ability to discern the true nature of the human spatial cognition will lead to potential precise applications in the development of aids for visually impaired people.

During the 19th century, French cities underwent great transformations in response to insalubrity. Many new streets were created and changed the overall intelligibility of the street network with the creation of boulevards where the defensive town wall used to stand, as well as large avenues to provide better accessibility to the centre of towns. This study aims to assess the impact of these transformations on the urban tissue by measuring the intelligibility of the urban form before and after the transformations. It compares the Napoleonic cadastral maps of Agen, Amiens, Avignon, Dijon, Clermont and Tourcoing with the current cadastre. Intelligibility is measured by the ease of navigation towards the centre of an urban environment and the ease of traversing it as one traces a path between two given points on the map. The choice of paths is examined, highlighting the role of the new streets. This research brings together the cognitive mechanisms that underpin the exploration and decision-making process when navigating urban maps with their syntactic and morphological properties. It examines the motor aspect of decisionmaking during the navigation process. Motor reactions are recorded using technology developed for the quantification of neuromotor impairments. This interdisciplinary approach provides a means to measure and better understand the intelligibility of urban environments.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book intro in downloadable .pdf] 

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." --John Steinbeck Scientific research confirms what people have always known: answers, ideas, and inspiration do come to us in dreams. Harvard psychologist and world-renowned dream specialist Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., offers this rich collection of examples of how the world's most creative practitioners in art, music, film, science, literature and other fields have used the revelations of their dream life to inform their work. Dr. Barrett offers insights showing us how to encourage lucid, meaningful dreaming, and how to apply the meanings of our dreams to solving problems--from the everyday to the extraordinary. This is the stuff dreams are made of. In the visual arts, Jasper Johns couldn't find his unique artistic vision until he dreamed it in the form of a large American flag. Salvador Dali and his colleagues built the startling new genre of surrealism out of dreams. Kubla Kahn dreamed the design for his stately pleasure dome; thousands of years later, Lucy Davis, chief architect at a major firm, continues the tradition of dreaming designs into life in her extraordinary buildings. Film is a fertile avenue for dreams: "Twice I have transferred dreams to film exactly as I had dreamed them," confides director Ingmar Bergman, as have Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, and John Sayles. From Mary Shelley's terrible nightmare, which became Frankenstein, to Stephen King's haunting dream as a little boy, which led to his first bestseller, countless writers have consulted the Committee. Musicians from Beethoven to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney have whistled the Committee's tunes. In science, physiologist Otto Loewi dreamed the medical experiment that earned him the Nobel Prize. In sports, Marion Jones dreamed she'd broken a world record, then brought the dream to life. Gandhi translated his dream of resistance into a movement that changed the world. Since Freud, we take it for granted that our dreams reflect our past. In The Committee of Sleep, Barrett reveals how dreams can also tell us about our future potential--and how to reach it.

Resumo: Num Estado de Direito, a luta política entre os vários grupos, que defendem ou atacam interesses de classe, económicos, profissionais, geracionais, de género, ou outros, embora regulada, é uma constante. Governos, empresas e cidadãos, individulamente ou em grupo, lutam pelos seus objectivos estabelecendo relações de poder. Os media sempre tiveram um papel instrumental neste contexto e o novo media do séc. XXI – o ciberespaço – não é excepção. As características estruturais e funcionais deste instrumento criaram novas condições para a mobi-lização e participação políticas, reavivando a crença na acção libertadora da téc-nica. Por outro lado, nenhuma outra tecnologia promoveu tanta concentração de poder nas grandes empresas da indústria digital, ou criou semelhantes condições para a vigilância activa dos cidadãos por parte dos Estados. Este artigo reune algumas reflexões sobre a importância do ciberespaço como dimensão de poder. Abstract: The political struggle among groups defending or attacking class, economic, professional, generational, gender or any other interests, although regulated, is a constant. Governments, businesses and citizens, individually or as a group, fight for their porpuses by establishing relations of power between them, the media had always played an instrumental role with this regard and the new media of the 21st century – the cyberspace – is no exception. The structural and 1 Entregue: 2.3.2015; aprovado: 30.5.2015.

Absract One of the most challenging and complex tasks when working with virtual worlds is the navigation process. This chapter presents the possibilities of using neural networks as a tool for studying spatial navigation within virtual worlds. How it learns to predict the next step for a given trajectory, acquiring basic spatial knowledge in terms of landmarks and configuration of

Pavel Korbička’s take on Minimalism is developed by means of an assertively defined luminescent linearity. It works as an (en)light(ening) object input, which inhabits particular spaces while manifesting some sort of hidden order and meaning. In this move, art activates space; space itself resonates with the synergy between me- ticulously located physical contingencies. In this sense, the work is a very clear and straightforward appropriation of material reality, if not – as I believe – a revelation. In other words, these are particularly exceptional spatiali- zations of light (to paraphrase the title of a famous work by Lucio Fontana, Spatial Light – Structure in Neon for the 9th Milan Triennial at the Palazzo dell’Arte in Milan, 1951.

ISBN 978-80-214-5787-4

Official storage site: https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/47243
Also available on ResearchGate (click on links)

FOREWORD: This thesis presents finding from perspective-taking tasks (see Figs. 2 and 3) that were NOT published in Zhong & Kozhevnikov (2016).

ABSTRACT (Revised):
The current study proposed the existence of two subtypes of survey knowledge/representations: (i) “allocentric-survey” versus (ii) “egocentric-survey”. On one hand, the allocentric-survey representation was proposed as a third person representation abstracted/inferred from knowledge of landmarks, routes, and spatial relations between them. On the other hand, the egocentric-survey representation was proposed as a survey representation formed incrementally through an engagement of egocentric spatial updating, which involves the automatic and continuous updating of transient self-to-object relations as one navigates in space.

Findings from study 1 suggested that egocentric survey representations were qualitatively different from allocentric survey representations as the former preserved information not only about spatial locations, but also about orientation. Two groups of sketchmap drawers exhibited comparable accuracy in representing the spatial layout of the learned route. However, sketchers of egocentric-survey maps were significantly faster on orientation and navigational pointing judgments than sketchers of allocentric-survey maps.

In Study 2, a Navigational Strategy Questionnaire (NSQ) was designed. It included a novel scale assessing a preference for spatial updating navigational strategy and two traditional scales assessing survey based and procedural navigational strategies. Critically, the spatial updating scale exhibited predictive validity in relation to large scale navigational performance and related spatial updating strategy use to the formation of egocentric survey representations.

Wayfinding is an ancient activity that has been essential for the survival of animals and humans for many centuries, aided by different sources of information, using a range of wayfinding strategies. This chapter explains how people navigate through different environments and explores how information, both static and digital, influences human

Many, at least outside the generativist tradition and even some inside it, have thought that spatial perception and cognition is of fundamental relevance to the human mind, and thus to the human language system. This point needs to be taken  seriously, if we are to understand what it is to be ‘situated’ and ‘embodied’, in the sense that cognitive linguists often use these terms. The Discourse Space Theory (DST) outlined in the
present paper starts with space, Euclidean three-dimensional space as it is, or may be, represented by the human nervous system (cf. O’Keefe and Nadel 1978, O’Keefe and Burgess 1996, Gallistel 1990, O’Keefe 1996, 2003, Gärdenfors 2000). This stance has two important implications. The first is that in order to model and explore the way language is grounded in the experiential situatedness of human individuals, we need a
notation with which to work. The second implication is that any such notation will need to be well motivated, by which is meant here that it will need to be more or less directly linked with the way we model the behaviour of human cognition and perception in general.

The uses of GIS at secondary school level have been mainly thought of as a support tool to encourage spatial thinking. While this approach definitely has its benefits in arguing for a wider set of competences acquired by GI-based learning, it has frequently been linked to technical interests and instrumental knowledge as described by Habermas (1968). The use of Geoinformation does not appear to serve an emancipatory interest in learning.
The concept of spatial citizenship tries to address these shortcomings. Conceptually, it originates from the individual and collective appropriation of social space and supports learners to acquire competences that will enable them to more actively participate in society. Spatial citizenship adds a spatial domain to citizenship education through a mixture of absolute, cognitive and relational concepts of space.
In addition to the fields of competences mentioned in the National Research Council report (2006) on spatial thinking, spatial citizenship implies that further competences are required. These may be termed competences to a) deconstruct the spatial information available from various sources, b) further ones own visions of social space by c) being able to translate and communicate them with the help of GI. Recent technological developments actively promote these geo-communication skills, while also posing new questions pertaining to the interests involved in the production and dissemination of voluntary geographic information. This contribution explores the starting points for spatial citizenship education and discusses aims and fields of competences for active spatial citizenship.

TURCSÁNY VILLŐ
INSTALLÁCIÓ MINT HIBRID MÉDIUM

A képzőművészeti installáció időbeli kiterjedésének, a hang médiumának elemzése, az installáció-művészetben differenciáltan megjelenő idő analitikus vizsgálata.
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Kutatásomban a néző tere és az alkotás tere percepcionális viszonyrendszerének elemzéséből indultam ki, majd belekezdtem a kapcsolódó fogalmi háló pontosításába.  A tapasztalat-központú, “experiential art” történeti eredetét keresve az alkotói/befogadói szituációra reagáló, szobrászati, illetve vegyes médiumú (intermediális) munkákat elemeztem az előadói -és befogadói jelenlét analízisén keresztül.  Jelenleg különböző fogalmi ‘metszetek’ hálóján keresztül vizsgálom performatív elemzési elvek érvényét a képzőművészet és a téralkotó design területén.
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KUTATÁSI TERÜLET

műfaj megjelölés:  environmental art / installációművészet, téralkotó design
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“RESEARCH FOR ART and DESIGN”
egymásra épülő SZEMPONTRENDSZER:

❏ Egyénre szabott kognitív térképek vizsgálata mint empirikus művészeti kutatás
❏ A multiszenzorialitás szerepe és visszahatása a tervezés folyamatára 
❏ Fizikai hang mint forráshalmaz paraméterek
❏ Az érzékelt hangra és a kinetikus szituációra való térbeli reflexiók leképezése
❏ Szöveg-struktúra, narratíva mint auditív rendszer
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MÓDSZERTAN

Empirikus művészeti kutatás:
❏ DIREKT ÉSZLELÉS / FRAGMENTÁLT ÉSZLELÉS eltéréseinek vizsgálata 
❏ BEFOGADÓI ÉSZLELÉS MINT AKTÍV FOLYAMAT vizsgálata: interaktív, szenzoros érzékelésen alapuló interaktív installáció fejlesztése “PULZUSIMPULZUSOK” címmel 
Interaktív, flexibilis design kutatás participatív alapon:
❏ PROJEKT FEJLESZTÉS elektronikus zenei -és szoftveres tervező munkatársakkal
❏ kurzusvezetői tapasztalatok: látványtervezői szempontok és az autonóm művészet metszéspontjainak feltárása - PEDAGÓGIAI SZEMPONT
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HIPOTÉZIS 

▪ A produkció- és recepcióesztétika előadóművészetek elméleti kerete mentén kidolgozható egy egyedi 'hybrid design' tervezési metódus.
▪ A képzőművészeti installáció műfajának posztminimalista fejlődése összevethető a látványtervezés kortárs tedenciáival az interdiszciplináris tér-design tekintetében.
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FIZIKAI JELENLÉT ÉS KEVERT MÉDIUMÚ MŰVEK VISZONYAI

kompozíció szempontjai: expresszió → invenció mint módszer
kinetikus szobrászati installáció → generatív design, interaktív installáció
újkonceptualizmus → globális kommunikáció
adat-akkumuláció ← tudományos és művészeti eredmények
→ reális tér és programozott lehetőségek

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TERVEZETT EREDMÉNY

Kutatásom tervezett eredménye egy, részben a doktori kutatásom során bemutatott, részben korábbi munkáim tanulságain alapuló komplex alkotói látásmód és munkamódszer pontos megfogalmazása.

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Turcsány Villő szobrászművész, multimédia művész
MOME Multimédia Művészet DLA doktoranda
Témavezetők: ERHARDT Miklós DLA,  Dr. TILLMANN József CSc
Poszter grafika: Kaszanyi Nóra
Foto: Turcsány Villő
Projekt Logo: Cosovan Attila

The task of studying the impact of social class on physical and mental health involves, among other things, the use of a conceptual toolbox that defines what social class is, establishes how to measure it, and sets criteria that help distinguish it from closely related concepts. One field that has recently witnessed a wealth of theoretical and conceptual research on social class is psychology, but geographers' and sociologists' attitude of diffidence toward this " positivistic " discipline has prevented them from taking advantage of this body of scholarship. This paper aims to highlight some of the most important developments in the psychological study of social class and social mobility that speak to the long-standing concerns of health geographers and sociologists with how social position, perceptions, social comparisons, and class-based identities impact health and well-being.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.037

The entry begins with a definition of geography and with a description of what the discipline shares with the other social sciences and what makes it distinctive among them. Terminological clarifications are provided with regard to the relationship between human geography and physical geography, and between human geography and urban geography. After a brief history and overview of human geography’s engagement with social theory, the entry offers a discussion of the politicization of contemporary human geography and of how this phenomenon is reflected in theory building and concept development.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118430873.est0464

The very notion of “representation” is discussed, in the original Computational Theory of Mind and in other theoretical contexts.
As to the spatial cognition (that is the capacity to discover, transform and use spatial information about the world), a robust evidence is mentioned, supporting the existence of many levels of representation. The sensorimotor experience in the space does not seem sufficient to guarantee the highest levels of spatial representation.

Individual differences are observed in processing and usage of spatial information in all areas of our lives. This study focuses on the relationship between spatial thinking style and spatial ability by holding gender constant. Gender, frequently reported in the literature, was predicted not to be the only factor explaining individual differences but there are other factors such as spatial representation. The sample consisted of all women, 61 university students. Spatial thinking style was measured by self-report questionnaires and spatial ability by Mental Rotation (MR) test. To enable the use of different strategies, 3D stimuli were presented in whole and cut form, followed by the Spatial Representation Questionnaire and the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale. Participants were categorized according to the way they represented space in their minds (survey or landmark). The main finding of the MR literature, Angular Disparity Effect, was replicated; as the angular disparity between the stimuli pair increased, response time slowed down and the accuracy ratio decreased. Furthermore, the stimulus shape and spatial representation were found to influence MR performance. As the angular disparity increased, so did the complexity of the task, and participants, who formed survey representations rotated the figures than the ones with landmark representations. Same pattern was observed with stimulus shape; as angular disparity increased, whole figures were rotated faster. Supporting the previous findings, current study suggests that differences in spatial cognition and spatial skills cannot solely be explained by gender but other factors such as spatial thinking style play an important part.

This article uses a limited example to demonstrate that studies of wayfinding and spatial learning can benefit from a more rigorous analytic description of building layout and exploration paths that exhibit their own pattern. In at least one case, search patterns are strongly shaped according to the degree of integration of each space and each choice node of the circulation system within the overall layout. Given this overriding trend, we formulate the idea of a search structure whereby the intelligible properties of layouts interact with navigation rules to produce characteristic patterns of exploration.

Nowadays revitalization is often defined as a comprehensive effort including revalorization, restoration, reconstruction, modernization and actions aimed at the revival of a building, a district or a town devastated in different aspects, also the economic and social ones. The social aspect is among the most significant ones. In other words, there is no complete revitalization without solving social problems. The presented study discusses problems related to the broadly approached revitalization projects and their main directions of development, based on the example of Polish revitalization programmes of territorial self-governmental units. The first part of the paper presents the definitional aspects of revitalization taking into account social, economic, environmental, spatial, functional, cultural and technical dimensions. Moreover, the definition, structure and purpose of a revitalization programme was characterized. Next the primary objectives and current developmental directions of revitalization in Poland were discussed based on the selected applicable revitalization programmes. Today the main directions of revitalization processes in Poland cover: the reduction of poverty and social exclusion, supporting local business, cleaner environment activities, sustainable spatial and functional development, supporting technical infrastructures, promoting culture-based socioeconomic development.