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Spatial Representation (spatial + representation)
Selected AbstractsEarly Education for Spatial Intelligence: Why, What, and HowMIND, BRAIN, AND EDUCATION, Issue 3 2010Nora S. Newcombe Spatial representation and thinking have evolutionary importance for any mobile organism. In addition, they help reasoning in domains that are not obviously spatial, for example, through the use of graphs and diagrams. This article reviews the literature suggesting that mental spatial transformation abilities, while present in some precursory form in infants, toddlers, and preschool children, also undergo considerable development and show important individual differences, which are malleable. These findings provide the basis for thinking about how to promote spatial thinking in preschools, at home, and in children's play. Integrating spatial content into formal and informal instruction could not only improve spatial functioning in general but also reduce differences related to gender and socioeconomic status that may impede full participation in a technological society. [source] Spatial representation of odorant structure in the moth antennal lobe: A study of structure,response relationships at low dosesTHE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY, Issue 1 2003Jocelijn Meijerink Abstract How odorant structure and concentration are spatially represented within the primary olfactory integration center, the antennal lobe (AL) or olfactory bulb (OB) in invertebrates and vertebrates, respectively, is currently a topic of high interest. Here, we show the spatial representation of odorant structure in the antennal lobe of the moth Spodoptera littoralis by imaging calcium activity evoked by straight chain aliphatic alcohols and aldehydes at low doses. Activity patterns of a given odor were most similar to compounds with the same functional group, differing in chain length by only one carbon atom. A chain length dependency was present as the most activated glomerulus in the lobe shifted from a medial to a lateral position with increasing chain length of the molecule. Statistical analysis revealed that in both classes of chemicals the chain length of the molecule was represented in a similar way. No topographically fixed domains were observed for any of the classes. However, activity patterns evoked by lower chain length molecules were spatially more distinct than patterns evoked by higher chain length molecules. The number of activated glomeruli for both classes of chemicals increased with increasing chain length to reach a maximum at eight or nine C atoms followed by a decrease as the chain length further increased. J. Comp. Neurol. 467:11,21, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Hierarchical spatial models for predicting pygmy rabbit distribution and relative abundanceJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2010Tammy L. Wilson Summary 1.,Conservationists routinely use species distribution models to plan conservation, restoration and development actions, while ecologists use them to infer process from pattern. These models tend to work well for common or easily observable species, but are of limited utility for rare and cryptic species. This may be because honest accounting of known observation bias and spatial autocorrelation are rarely included, thereby limiting statistical inference of resulting distribution maps. 2.,We specified and implemented a spatially explicit Bayesian hierarchical model for a cryptic mammal species (pygmy rabbit Brachylagus idahoensis). Our approach used two levels of indirect sign that are naturally hierarchical (burrows and faecal pellets) to build a model that allows for inference on regression coefficients as well as spatially explicit model parameters. We also produced maps of rabbit distribution (occupied burrows) and relative abundance (number of burrows expected to be occupied by pygmy rabbits). The model demonstrated statistically rigorous spatial prediction by including spatial autocorrelation and measurement uncertainty. 3.,We demonstrated flexibility of our modelling framework by depicting probabilistic distribution predictions using different assumptions of pygmy rabbit habitat requirements. 4.,Spatial representations of the variance of posterior predictive distributions were obtained to evaluate heterogeneity in model fit across the spatial domain. Leave-one-out cross-validation was conducted to evaluate the overall model fit. 5.,Synthesis and applications. Our method draws on the strengths of previous work, thereby bridging and extending two active areas of ecological research: species distribution models and multi-state occupancy modelling. Our framework can be extended to encompass both larger extents and other species for which direct estimation of abundance is difficult. [source] Evaluation of a dynamic multi-class sediment transport model in a catchment under soil-conservation agricultureEARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 11 2008Peter Fiener Abstract Soil erosion models are essential tools for the successful implementation of effective and adapted soil conservation measures on agricultural land. Therefore, models are needed that predict sediment delivery and quality, give a good spatial representation of erosion and deposition and allow us to account for various soil conservation measures. Here, we evaluate how well a modified version of the spatially distributed multi-class sediment transport model (MCST) simulates the effectiveness of control measures for different event sizes. We use 8 year runoff and sediment delivery data from two small agricultural watersheds (0·7 and 3·7 ha) under optimized soil conservation. The modified MCST model successfully simulates surface runoff and sediment delivery from both watersheds; one of which was dominated by sheet and the other was partly affected by rill erosion. Moreover, first results of modelling enrichment of clay in sediment delivery are promising, showing the potential of MCST to model sediment enrichment and nutrient transport. In general, our results and those of an earlier modelling exercise in the Belgian Loess Belt indicate the potential of the MCST model to evaluate soil erosion and deposition under different agricultural land uses. As the model explicitly takes into account the dominant effects of soil-conservation agriculture, it should be successfully applicable for soil-conservation planning/evaluation in other environments. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Hippocampal participation in navigational map learning in young homing pigeons is dependent on training experienceEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 2 2000Paolo Ioalè Abstract The homing pigeon navigational map is perhaps one of the most striking examples of a naturally occurring spatial representation of the environment used to guide navigation. In a previous study, it was found that hippocampal lesions thoroughly disrupt the ability of young homing pigeons held in an outdoor aviary to learn a navigational map. However, since that study an accumulation of anecdotal data has hinted that hippocampal-lesioned young pigeons allowed to fly during their first summer could learn a navigational map. In the present study, young control and hippocampal-lesioned homing pigeons were either held in an outdoor aviary or allowed to fly during the time of navigational map learning. At the end of their first summer, the birds were experimentally released to test for navigational map learning. Independent of training experience, control pigeons oriented homeward during the experimental releases demonstrating that they learned a navigational map. Surprisingly, while the aviary-held hippocampal-lesioned pigeons failed to learn a navigational map as reported previously, hippocampal-lesioned birds allowed flight experience learned a navigational map indistinguishable from the two control groups. A subsequent experiment revealed that the navigational map learned by the three groups was based on atmospheric odours. The results demonstrate that hippocampal participation in navigational map learning depends on the type of experience a young bird pigeon has, and presumably, the type of navigational map learned. [source] Evaluating the impacts of climate and elevated carbon dioxide on tropical rainforests of the western Amazon basin using ecosystem models and satellite dataGLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2010HIROFUMI HASHIMOTO Abstract Forest inventories from the intact rainforests of the Amazon indicate increasing rates of carbon gain over the past three decades. However, such estimates have been questioned because of the poor spatial representation of the sampling plots and the incomplete understanding of purported mechanisms behind the increases in biomass. Ecosystem models, when used in conjunction with satellite data, are useful in examining the carbon budgets in regions where the observations of carbon flows are sparse. The purpose of this study is to explain observed trends in normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) using climate observations and ecosystem models of varying complexity in the western Amazon basin for the period of 1984,2002. We first investigated trends in NDVI and found a positive trend during the study period, but the positive trend in NDVI was observed only in the months from August to December. Then, trends in various climate parameters were calculated, and of the climate variables considered, only shortwave radiation was found to have a corresponding significant positive trend. To compare the impact of each climate component, as well as increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, on evergreen forests in the Amazon, we ran three ecosystem models (CASA, Biome-BGC, and LPJ), and calculated monthly net primary production by changing a climate component selected from the available climate datasets. As expected, CO2 fertilization effects showed positive trends throughout the year and cannot explain the positive trend in NDVI, which was observed only for the months of August to December. Through these simulations, we demonstrated that the positive trend in shortwave radiation can explain the positive trend in NDVI observed for the period from August to December. We conclude that the positive trend in shortwave radiation is the most likely driver of the increasing trend in NDVI and the corresponding observed increases in forest biomass. [source] Space and context in the temporal cortexHIPPOCAMPUS, Issue 9 2007David K. Bilkey Abstract The hippocampus has a critical role in certain kinds of spatial memory processes. Hippocampal "place" cells, fire selectively when an animal is in a particular location within the environment. It is thought that this activity underlies a representation of the environment that can be used for memory-based spatial navigation. But how is this representation constructed and how is it "read"? A simple mechanism, based on place field density across an environment, is described that could allow hippocampal representations to be "read" by other brain regions for the purpose of navigation. The possible influence of activity in neighboring brain regions such as the perirhinal cortex, and pre- and para-subiculum on the construction of the hippocampal spatial representation is then discussed. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Anarchical Governance: Neoliberal Governmentality in Resonance with the State of ExceptionINTERNATIONAL POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Hiroyuki Tosa Beside the promotion of a politics of inclusion, implemented by governing at a distance, the global governmentality also promotes a politics of exclusion, such as establishing targeted governance that is aimed at deviant groups at the periphery of global politics. This highly disciplinary social control that is imposed upon the marginalized population sometimes leads to instances of the state of exception, in which people are forced to endure "bare lives." This kind of exception existing at the marginalized periphery of the neoliberal global governmentality becomes normal. This neoliberal governmentality creates an informal sector of an enormous scale, whose spatial representation is the global slum, and where vicious cycles of violence become normal. [source] Le coup d',il du spectateur: Spectatorial Function and Stage Space in French Theatre Design, 1760-1784JOURNAL FOR EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES, Issue 4 2009PANNILL CAMP Abstract The sightlines which architects such as Oppenord and Roubo the Younger drew on their theatre plans demonstrate an attempt to align stage spaces and optical fields. Indeed, the reform-minded architects of the period 1748 to 1784 applied geometrical forms to their plans, and adopted a terminology borrowed from optics, the science of light and vision. In focusing specifically on the theoretical texts and architectural drawings published between 1765 and 1784, we argue that this use of optical space indicates a dislocation between, on the one hand, the spatial representation which the French reformers promoted in their drawings and, on the other, stage perspective, which had, since the previous century, been associated with the influence of the Italian Baroque. In the 1780s, architects gradually abandoned the use of stage perspective, preferring instead a theatrical space modelled after an ostensibly natural optical encounter. [source] REVIEW: The functional organization of the intraparietal sulcus in humans and monkeysJOURNAL OF ANATOMY, Issue 1 2005Christian Grefkes Abstract In macaque monkeys, the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is concerned with the integration of multimodal information for constructing a spatial representation of the external world (in relation to the macaque's body or parts thereof), and planning and executing object-centred movements. The areas within the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), in particular, serve as interfaces between the perceptive and motor systems for controlling arm and eye movements in space. We review here the latest evidence for the existence of the IPS areas AIP (anterior intraparietal area), VIP (ventral intraparietal area), MIP (medial intraparietal area), LIP (lateral intraparietal area) and CIP (caudal intraparietal area) in macaques, and discuss putative human equivalents as assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The data suggest that anterior parts of the IPS comprising areas AIP and VIP are relatively well preserved across species. By contrast, posterior areas such as area LIP and CIP have been found more medially in humans, possibly reflecting differences in the evolution of the dorsal visual stream and the inferior parietal lobule. Despite interspecies differences in the precise functional anatomy of the IPS areas, the functional relevance of this sulcus for visuomotor tasks comprising target selections for arm and eye movements, object manipulation and visuospatial attention is similar in humans and macaques, as is also suggested by studies of neurological deficits (apraxia, neglect, Bálint's syndrome) resulting from lesions to this region. [source] Beethoven's Birdstrokes: Figuration, Subjectivity, and the Force of the Score in the Pastoral Symphony and Copying BeethovenLITERATURE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 8 2010William Kumbier The inscription of a musical score is, at root, a figural gesture. As the score's figures construct a metaphoric bridge, from the composer's conception through their spatial representation to the composition's aural realization, they also play, reflexively, off and into other musical figurations and what those figurations signify. Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, Op. 68, provides a rich and distinctive instance of scoring in which the musical figurations seem especially charged to generate meanings beyond the sounds that one ,hears' when reading the score mainly as a script for performance. This work, despite Beethoven's famous assertion that it is ,more expression of feeling than painting', mediates aural and visual realms with its deft deployment of musical figurations traditionally heard and seen as pictorial, notably through those figurations associated with water and birdsong in the work's second movement, ,Scene by the Brook'. In Beethoven's scoring his unusual insistence on the physical and pictorial, his development of the spatial dimensions of the music, intensifies the music's programmatic or mimetic thrust but also marks the music's metamimetic distance from its pastoral referents. Beethoven's figuration thus becomes a means of mediating subjective consciousness and the world that consciousness encounters or imagines. The force of musical figuration and its implications for subjectivity, again with key reference to Beethoven, are vividly realized also in the recent cinematic reading of the scoring and performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Agnieszka Holland's Copying Beethoven (2007). [source] Spatial representation of odorant structure in the moth antennal lobe: A study of structure,response relationships at low dosesTHE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY, Issue 1 2003Jocelijn Meijerink Abstract How odorant structure and concentration are spatially represented within the primary olfactory integration center, the antennal lobe (AL) or olfactory bulb (OB) in invertebrates and vertebrates, respectively, is currently a topic of high interest. Here, we show the spatial representation of odorant structure in the antennal lobe of the moth Spodoptera littoralis by imaging calcium activity evoked by straight chain aliphatic alcohols and aldehydes at low doses. Activity patterns of a given odor were most similar to compounds with the same functional group, differing in chain length by only one carbon atom. A chain length dependency was present as the most activated glomerulus in the lobe shifted from a medial to a lateral position with increasing chain length of the molecule. Statistical analysis revealed that in both classes of chemicals the chain length of the molecule was represented in a similar way. No topographically fixed domains were observed for any of the classes. However, activity patterns evoked by lower chain length molecules were spatially more distinct than patterns evoked by higher chain length molecules. The number of activated glomeruli for both classes of chemicals increased with increasing chain length to reach a maximum at eight or nine C atoms followed by a decrease as the chain length further increased. J. Comp. Neurol. 467:11,21, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Influence of mapping resolution on assessments of stream and streamside conditions: lessons from coastal Oregon, USA,AQUATIC CONSERVATION: MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, Issue 3 2009Ken Vance-Borland Abstract 1.Digital hydrographic data are commonly employed in research, planning, and monitoring for freshwater conservation, but hydrographic datasets differ in spatial resolution and accuracy of spatial representation, possibly leading to inaccurate conclusions or unsuitable policies for streams and streamside areas. 2.To examine and illustrate the potential for different hydrographic datasets to influence in-channel and streamside characterizations, a study area in the US Pacific Northwest was chosen because 1:100,000, 1:24,000, and densified 1:24,000 hydrography are available and widely used in research and management for several species of Pacific salmon and trout at risk. The potential was examined for differences among the digital hydrographic datasets in: (1) spatial extent to influence estimated abundances of fish habitat, streamside buffer conditions, and fish distributions; and (2) spatial position to influence estimated streamside buffer conditions and estimated stream gradient. 3.The analysis of spatial extent found the total stream length represented by the 1:100,000 hydrography was approximately one half that of 1:24,000 hydrography and only one fifth that of densified 1:24,000 hydrography. The 1:100,000 and 1:24,000 networks differed significantly for 13 out of 18 fish habitat attributes, and the three hydrographic datasets differed significantly for many characteristics in streamside buffers; fish distributions mapped at 1:24,000 added 6,14% of stream length to 1:100,000 distributions. The analysis of spatial position found few differences between the 1:100,000 and 1:24,000 hydrography in streamside buffer characteristics but significant differences in channel gradient. 4.Overall, hydrographic datasets differed only slightly in spatial position but differed in spatial extent to the point of representing different populations of streams. If species inhabiting larger streams (greater mean annual discharge) are of interest, then results derived from studies based on 1:100,000 hydrography should prove useful. However, higher-resolution hydrography can be critical when designing and implementing strategies to protect fish and other aquatic species at risk in smaller streams. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The effect of spatial cues on infants' responses in the AB task, with and without a hidden objectDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2001Andrew Bremner The errors made by infants in the AB task were taken by Piaget as an indication of an inability to update their representations of the spatial location of a hidden object. This paper presents an experiment designed to further investigate the role of spatial representations in the production of the error. The introduction of strong visual cues to spatial location was found to reduce the traditional A-not-B search error. However, it also increased perseveration when a ,lids-only' analogue of the AB task was used, in which infants are simply cued to pick up lids rather than encouraged to search for a hidden object. These results present a challenge to the dynamic systems account of the error given by Smith, Thelen, Titzer and McLin (Psychological Review, 106 (1999), 235,260), and indicate that the traditional A-not-B search error arises from a difficulty in updating representations of the spatial location of hidden objects. The relation of these results to Munakata's PDP model (Developmental Science, 1 (1998), 161,211) and Thelen, Schöner, Scheier and Smith's (Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 24 (2001), 1--86) most recent dynamic systems model of the A-not-B error is also discussed. [source] Soft ontologies, spatial representations and multi-perspective explorabilityEXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 5 2008Mauri Kaipainen Abstract: It is against the dynamically evolving nature of many contemporary media applications to be analysed in terms of conventional rigid ontologies that rely on expertise-based fixed categories and hierarchical structure. Many of these rely on sharing ,folksonomies', personal descriptions of information and objects for one's own retrieval. Such applications involve many feedback mechanisms via the community, and have been shown to have emergent properties of complex dynamic systems. We propose that such dynamically evolving information domains can be more usefully described by means of a soft ontology, a dynamically flexible and inherently spatial metadata approach for ill-defined domains. Our contribution is (1) the elaboration of the so far intuitive concept of soft ontology in a way that supports conceptualizing dynamically evolving domains. Further, our approach proposes (2) a whole new mode of interaction with information domains by means of recurring exploration of an information domain from multiple perspectives in search of more comprehensive understanding of it, i.e. multi-perspective exploration. We demonstrate this concept with an example of collaborative tagging in an educational context. [source] Producing and Editing Diagrams Using Co-Speech Gesture: Spatializing Nonspatial Relations in Explanations of Kinship in LaosJOURNAL OF LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2003N.J. Enfield This article presents a description of two sequences of talk by urban speakers of Lao (a southwestern Tai language spoken in Laos) in which co-speech gesture plays a central role in explanations of kinship relations and terminology. The speakers spontaneously use hand gestures and gaze to spatially diagram relationships that have no inherent spatial structure. The descriptive sections of the article are prefaced by a discussion of the semiotic complexity of illustrative gestures and gesture diagrams. Gestured signals feature iconic, indexical, and symbolic components, usually in combination, as well as using motion and three-dimensional space to convey meaning. Such diagrams show temporal persistence and structural integrity despite having been projected in midair by evanescent signals (i.e., handmovements anddirected gaze). Speakers sometimes need or want to revise these spatial representations without destroying their structural integrity. The need to "edit" gesture diagrams involves such techniques as hold-and-drag, hold-and-work-with-free-hand, reassignment-of-old-chunk-tonew-chunk, and move-body-into-new-space. [source] Symbolically speaking: a connectionist model of sentence productionCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 5 2002Franklin Chang Abstract The ability to combine words into novel sentences has been used to argue that humans have symbolic language production abilities. Critiques of connectionist models of language often center on the inability of these models to generalize symbolically (Fodor & Pylyshyn, 1988; Marcus, 1998). To address these issues, a connectionist model of sentence production was developed. The model had variables (role-concept bindings) that were inspired by spatial representations (Landau & Jackendoff, 1993). In order to take advantage of these variables, a novel dual-pathway architecture with event semantics is proposed and shown to be better at symbolic generalization than several variants. This architecture has one pathway for mapping message content to words and a separate pathway that enforces sequencing constraints. Analysis of the model's hidden units demonstrated that the model learned different types of information in each pathway, and that the model's compositional behavior arose from the combination of these two pathways. The model's ability to balance symbolic and statistical behavior in syntax acquisition and to model aphasic double dissociations provided independent support for the dual-pathway architecture. [source] | ||||||||||||||||