空间表征发展中的感知觉动作整合机制

The development of human spatial knowledge has been well-documented from diverse perspectives in spatial cognition research. Most traditional work shares the common belief that mental spatial representations have an abstract, image-like nature at their most developed stage. More recently, emerging ideas behind embodied cognition have attracted great interest from cognitive scientists, which emphasize the reenactment of experienced perceptions and actions during cognitive process. Spatial representations may be grounded in perceptions and actions when people learning spatial information. However, few studies were conducted to examine the perceptuo-motor process in large-scale long-term spatial representations. .The present research attempts to investigate the plausible role of such perceptuo-motor associations in spatial representation development. While people acquire spatial knowledge from various information sources, we inquire whether the perceptuo-motor associations functioning distinctively across these sources. Moreover, the present study is also exploring it is the encoding or retrieval process that determining the involvement of perceptuo-motor association in spatial cognition. Further, as language comprehension may also activate perceptuo-motor process, we consider perceptuo-motor associations as a bridge to disclose the interaction between human language and spatial cognition in the study. Therefore, a spatial compatibility paradigm is used to investigate perceptuo-motor processes during spatial tasks. Once the current motion is promoted by sharing the same moving direction with the spatial representation or semantic comprehension, there would be a spatial compatibility effect, indicating the involvement of perceptuo-motor associations. The present research has important implications in many fields, from daily life to science to technology, such as navigating through novel or familiar environment, designing interface of navigating equipment for military purpose, modeling the spatial cognition for cognitive robots.

人类需要获得空间知识来完成与外界环境的交互活动。传统空间表征理论认为人类空间表征本质上是抽象的，类地图性质的，而近年具身认知研究认为人类认知过程实际上是对经验过的感知觉和动作加工的再激活。因此人类空间表征可能整合了学习空间环境过程中的感知觉和动作加工，但目前较少研究对大范围空间环境的心理表征中的感知觉动作(perceptuo-motor)整合进行探索。本项目将使用空间兼容范式研究不同信息源空间表征发展过程中perceptuo-motor加工的机制。当空间表征的方向属性与当前反应方向一致时，当前反应表现会被提升，即出现空间兼容效应，也即支持perceptuo-motor加工的激活。同时，研究显示语言理解也能够激活perceptuo-motor加工，并且语言与空间认知存在交互作用，因此我们将以perceptuo-motor加工作为桥梁，对空间表征中的语言影响做出探讨。

人类需要获得空间知识来完成与外界环境的交互活动。传统空间表征理论认为人类空间表征本质上是抽象的，类地图性质的，而近年具身认知研究认为人类认知过程实际上是对经验过的感知觉和动作加工的再激活。本研究的目的是考察大范围空间表征发展中感知觉动作整合（perceptuo-motor association）加工。通过追踪不同编码来源的空间表征（真实环境，虚拟环境，地图，言语描述），考察其在各种提取（自我中心参照系，地理方向参照系）条件下的加工过程，系统化的探索空间表征的机制及其发生发展。同时在空间任务中加入言语加工，考察语言与空间表征发展的交互作用，为建立空间认知的心理模型提供理论基础。本项目使用空间兼容范式研究不同信息源空间表征发展过程中perceptuo-motor association的加工机制。当空间表征的方向属性与当前反应方向一致时，当前反应表现会被提升，即出现空间兼容效应，也即支持perceptuo-motor association的激活。本项目提出编码假说和提取假说来对实验结果进行解释。编码假说认为空间表征所包含的perceptuo-motor association只与编码阶段相联系。提取假说假设perceptuo-motor association的激活是基于空间知识是如何被使用的，例如，提取空间信息的角度，提取线索，提取方式等等，而空间信息是如何学习的并不对其产生影响。研究结果显示1）基于真实环境，虚拟环境，地图，言语描述的空间表征加工都支持提取假说，即被试从自我中心参照系提取空间知识时显示出空间兼容效应，而从地理方向参照系提取时则没有；2）高熟悉度被试可以在不同策略中转换，低熟悉度被试则必须将绝对方向视角与自我中心参照系相联系，也会受到两种视角随机呈现的影响；3）空间知识发展的初期，容易受到语言加工的影响，此时观察到的perceptuo-motor association加工可能由语言理解引起，而非空间信息加工。以上结果表明perceptuo-motor association是否被激活依赖于空间表征的通用机制，而不具有基于信息源的特异性，同时会受到空间知识熟悉度以及语言加工的影响。本研究为空间表征机制的认知模型建立提供实证支持，明确了perceptuo-motor association在空间表征中的功能，也为空间表征机制的应用提供的理论基础。