Characterization Of The Relationship Between Processing Of Visual Space In The Frame Of Reference

In-depth understanding of the representation styles of human spatial relations can assist us in understanding deeply the process of our spatial informational representation, which can provide us with psychological reference and guidance in various fields on judging the spatial relations, such as the map designing, meter designing in the cockpit, the research and development of spatial orientation systems etc. Any spatial relation will be based on a reference frame. Discussing the representation styles and characteristics of reference frames in the processing of visuospatial relations will be meaningful both theoretically and realistically, not only in terms of enriching and developing the theories of spatial relation processing and reference frame representation, but also in terms of interpretation and adapting to more practical fields.Through the behavioral experiments and the use of several kinds of paradigms, such as priming, negative priming etc., the current research focuses on the reference system representation of the processing of visuospatial relations, and a series of studies on the representation styles and characteristics of the reference frame were conducted regarding the processing of coordinate and categorical spatial relations. The following aspects were systematically examined in processing the categorical and coordinate spatial relations:firstly, the representation of reference frame parameters; secondly, the selection, activation and subsequent inhibition of the reference frame representation; thirdly, the influences of the reference frame representation under the dynamic situations on the two spatial relations.Adopting the priming paradigm, Research 1 (Chapter 3) studied the representation of reference frame parameters in the categorical and coordinate spatial relations. The relationship between these two kinds of spatial relations was investigated on the basis of parameter representation.Based on the research results in Research 1, Research 2 (Chapter 4) was conducted through combining the traditional visual half-field method and the parameter representation studies. According to the visual field bias of the parameter representation in the processing of two spatial relations, the hemispheric difference of the processing of two spatial relations was analyzed.In Research 3 (Chapter 5), through controlling the processing strategies of the subjects during the categorical spatial relation task, discussions were conducted on the activation and representation of multiple reference frames in company with the reference frame selection in Experiment 5. In Experiment 6, based on the priming paradigm, the intrinsic reference frame representation and the corresponding influence factors in the task of coordinate spatial relation were investigated.Based on the research results of Experiment 5, Research 4 (Chapter 6) adopted the negative priming paradigm and explored the proposition that the selection of the absolute/relative reference frame involves activation and subsequent inhibition of the non-selected intrinsic reference frame during the categorical spatial relation task. Furthermore, in-depth analyses were conducted about which components of the non-selected reference frame are inhibited and the hierarchical structures of reference frame representation.Under the dynamic representation of reference frame, Research 5 (Chapter 7) explored the influences of space-time information on the processing of the categorical and coordinate spatial relations respectively, such as the relationship between the reference object's movement direction and the appearing spot of the location object etc.Accordingly, the research results are as follows:(1) The representation of direction existed in the coordinate spatial relations processing, and the parameters of orientation existed in the contexts of certain tasks. Moreover, the parameters of distance also existed in the categorical spatial relations processing. Such results concerning representation could further indicate that processing of categorical and coordinate spatial relations implicitly include spatial relations to another.(2) The processing of coordinate spatial relations generally showed the left visual field deviation. The corresponding direction parameter representation had not presented visual field advantage. Moreover, in general, the processing of categorical spatial relations had not showed the right visual field deviation. The corresponding distance parameter representation presented the advantage of the left visual field. The preceding representation results further indicated that in terms of coordinate spatial relations, the processing deflection of the right hemisphere was evident, while in terms of categorical spatial relations, the processing deflection of the left hemisphere may not be easy to found.(3) In the tasks of categorical spatial relations, the automatic activation of the non-selected intrinsic reference frame was involved in the selection of the absolute/relative reference frame. And the representations of the two reference frames had its own priority axis respectively. In the tasks of coordinate spatial relations, intrinsic reference frame representation existed, which was influenced by the difficulty of judgment. When across prime trials and probe trials were located at the same endpoint of intrinsic reference frame, the tasks would be promoted.(4) In the tasks of categorical spatial relations, there was the activation and subsequent inhibition of the non-selected intrinsic reference frame during the selection of the absolute/relative reference frame. Such inhibition mainly happened on the priority axes. The preceding facts proved that the axis of the reference frame could become the representation unit of the reference frame independent of the concrete endpoint.(5) Time-space information might be stored into a so-called off-line memory when the moving stimuli disappeared. Compared with the coordinate spatial relations processing, the categorical spatial relations processing of the moving objects could be more permanent. Furthermore, compared with the categorical spatial relations processing, the coordinate spatial relations processing as a kind of sophisticated distance representation was not easily influenced by the information concerning the relationship between the moving directions of the reference objects and the appearing spot of the location objects.In summary, five researches were carefully conducted so as to provide a relatively systematic understanding towards the representation styles and characteristics of the reference frame in the processing of categorical and coordinate spatial relations. With regard to the future researches on the spatial relationship processing and the reference frame representation, the current studies have provided a brand-new research angle, while enriching Kosslyn's research paradigm concerning the processing subsystem of the spatial relations.