The Mind’s Views of Space

How does the mind understand space? This paper reviews some relevant findings and describes a unified theoretical framework for human spatial cognition called FORMS. The theory maintains that spatial cognition is an elementary brain function and involves multiple unique brain systems. Space is represented in the mind not once but multiple times, not unified but segmented. Each representation is a salience map with a distinctive frame of reference. It is believed that this theory has solid neuroscience support, is consistent with the general findings that the mind’s views of space are often segmented, relative, and distorted, and provides a theoretical foundation for computational modeling of human spatial cognition.