Putting Egocentric and Allocentric into Perspective

In the last decade many studies examined egocentric and allocentric spatial relations. For various tasks, navigators profit from both kinds of relations. However, their interrelation seems to be underspecified. We present four elementary representations of allocentric and egocentric relations (sensorimotor contingencies, egocentric coordinate systems, allocentric coordinate systems, and perspective-free representations) and discuss them with respect to their encoding and retrieval. Elementary representations are problematic for capturing large spaces and situations which encompass both allocentric and egocentric relations at the same time. Complex spatial representations provide a solution to this problem. They combine elementary coordinate representations either by pair-wise connections or by hierarchical embedding. We discuss complex spatial representations with respect to computational requirements and their plausibility regarding behavioral and neural findings. This work is meant to clarify concepts of egocentric and allocentric, to show their limitations, benefits and empirical plausibility and to point out new directions for future research.