This article investigates the relationship between visual mental representations and spatial mental representations in human visuo-spatial processing. By comparing two common theories of visuo-spatial processing - mental model theory and the theory of mental imagery - we identified two open questions: (1) which representations are modality-specific, and (2) what is the role of the two represent...

Two experiments investigated the mental representation of spatial descriptions. In Experiment 1, the subjects classified a series of diagrams, each presented after a spatial description, as either consistent or inconsistent with the description. They were then given an unexpected recognition test of their memory for the descriptions. The subjects remembered the meanings of determinate descripti...

In this paper it is argued that it is legitimate to talk about mental imagery, and thus, to claim that spatial information is coded in an analogue mode. Evidence from research with blind people indicate that they can perform mental rotation and that analogue spatial cognition does not depend on visual information. It is therefore proposed that, if the blind can perform mental rotation in an ana...

Urban monuments encompass a wide range of architectural works either intentionally or unintentionally. These works are often salient due to their inherently explicit or hidden components and qualities in the urban context. Therefore, they affect the mental-spatial representations of the environment and make the city legible. However, the ambiguity of effective components often complicates their...

a r t i c l e i n f o The present study investigates the relation between spatial ability and visuo-spatial and verbal working memory in spatial text processing. In two experiments, participants listened to a spatial text (Experiments 1 and 2) and a non-spatial text (Experiment 1), at the same time performing a spatial or a verbal concurrent task, or no secondary task. To understand how individ...

Mental spatial knowledge processing often uses spatio-analogical or quasipictorial representation structures such as spatial mental models or mental images. The cognitive architecture Casimir is designed to provide a framework for computationally modeling human spatial knowledge processing relying on these kinds of representation formats. In this article, we present an overview of Casimir and i...