EXPRESS: “Run to the hills”: Specific contributions of anticipated energy expenditure during active spatial learning

Grounded views of cognition consider that space perception is shaped by the body and its potential for action. These views are substantiated by observations such as the distance-on-hill effect, described as the overestimation of visually perceived uphill distances. An interpretation of this phenomenon is that slanted distances are overestimated because of the integration of energy expenditure cues. The visual perceptual processes involved are however usually tackled through explicit estimation tasks in passive situations. The goal of this study was to consider instead more ecological active spatial processing. Using immersive virtual reality and an omnidirectional treadmill, we investigated the effect of anticipated implicit physical locomotion cost by comparing spatial learning for uphill and downhill routes, while maintaining actual physical cost and walking speed constant. In the first experiment, participants learnt city layouts by exploring uphill or downhill routes. They were then tested using a landmark positioning task on a map. In the second experiment, the same protocol was used with participants who wore loaded ankle weights. Results from the first experiment showed that walking uphill routes led to a global underestimation of distances compared to downhill routes. This inverted distance-of-hill effect was not observed in the second experiment, where an additional effort was applied. These results suggest that the underestimation of distances observed in experiment one emerged from recalibration processes whose function was to solve the transgression of proprioceptive predictions linked with uphill energy expenditure. Results are discussed in relation to constructivist approaches on spatial representations and predictive coding theories.

Effects of Visually Induced Self-Motion on Sound Localization Accuracy

The deterioration of sound localization accuracy during a listener’s head/body rotation is independent of the listener’s rotation velocity (Honda et al., 2016). However, whether this deterioration occurs only during physical movement in a real environment remains unclear. In this study, we addressed this question by subjecting physically stationary listeners to visually induced self-motion, i.e., vection. Two conditions—one with a visually induced perception of self-motion (vection) and the other without vection (control)—were adopted. Under both conditions, a short noise burst (30 ms) was presented via a loudspeaker in a circular array placed horizontally in front of a listener. The listeners were asked to determine whether the acoustic stimulus was localized relative to their subjective midline. The results showed that in terms of detection thresholds based on the subjective midline, the sound localization accuracy was lower under the vection condition than under the control condition. This indicates that sound localization can be compromised under visually induced self-motion perception. These findings support the idea that self-motion information is crucial for auditory space perception and can potentially enable the design of dynamic binaural displays requiring fewer computational resources.

ASSOCIATIVE LANDSCAPE IN THE SPACE OF VISUAL AND SEMIOTIC EXPERIENCE

The article is devoted to the concept of an associative landscape and the phenomenon of the visual nature of its perception. The aim of the work is to study the sign-symbolic images of nature on the example of a cultural landscape and their visualization of graphic design. The article examines the features of associative landscapes, the semiotic concept of the cultural landscape and its semantic reading as a text, the concept of semiosphere and noosphere. The object of the research is the associative landscape as a special type of space perception based on a visual-semiotic language. The subject of the research is the cultural landscape as a visual-spatial category, expressed in sign-symbolic images and directly related to the natural environment.

MINIMALISM PHILOSOPHY AND ITS REFLECTIONS ON SPACE

Since the beginning of its time, minimalism had a wide range. Consciously or not minimalism had touched the life of many. This is why even though being unrelated to art, most of the people in the World knows about this art movement. The reason why minimalism touched many lives is the way it evolved to something more than just an art movement. It became a way of living a philosophy. Another reason for this philosophy to become this popular is because minimalism can be seen in many scales in life such as; art, design, philosophy, music and literature. This paper aims to analyse the minimalism movement, to enlighten the milestones of it, to research the process of its evolution and to understand how it became a philosophy and how this philosophy is reflected to spaces. Keywords: Minimalism, philosophyi space, perception

Subjective Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients with Dizziness and Vertigo

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Patients with vestibular disorders sometimes report cognitive difficulties, but there is no consensus about the type or degree of cognitive complaint. We therefore investigated subjective cognitive dysfunction in a well-defined sample of neuro-otology patients and used demographic factors and scores from a measure of depression, anxiety, and stress to control for potential confounding factors. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We asked 126 neuro-otology clinic outpatients whether they experienced difficulties with thinking, memory, or concentration as a result of dizziness or vertigo. They and 42 nonvertiginous control subjects also completed the Neuropsychological Vertigo Inventory (NVI, which measures cognitive, emotional, vision, and motor complaints), the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ), and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS). <b><i>Results:</i></b> In the initial interview questions, 60% of patients reported experiencing cognitive difficulties. Cognitive questionnaire scores were positively correlated with the overall DASS score and to a lesser extent with age and gender. Therefore, we compared patients and controls on the NVI and EMQ, using these mood and demographic variables as covariates. Linear regression analyses revealed that patients scored significantly worse on the total NVI, NVI cognitive composite, and 3 individual NVI cognition subscales (Attention, Space Perception, and Time Perception), but not the EMQ. Patients also scored significantly worse on the NVI Emotion and Motor subscales. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Patients with dizziness and vertigo reported high levels of cognitive dysfunction, affecting attention, perceptions of space and time. Although perceptions of cognitive dysfunction were correlated with emotional distress, they were significantly elevated in patients over and above the impact of depression, anxiety, or stress.

Influence of Wearing Surgical Mask on Interpersonal Space Perception Between Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese People

Wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing of 1.5m are two common preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19. However, the interaction of these preventive measures in interpersonal space (IPS) perception remains unknown. This study evaluated the effects of wearing surgical masks, sex dyads, and approaching patterns on IPS judgment. Data were collected from participants from Mainland China (n=100) and Taiwan (n=100) through an online survey. Therefore, the regional differences were also examined. A smaller IPS was observed when participants faced confederates wearing surgical masks than in the no-mask condition. Female dyads tended to maintain a smaller IPS than did both male and mixed-sex dyads, and Taiwanese participants maintained a significantly larger IPS than did Mainland Chinese participants. No significant difference was observed between the active and passive pattern. Moreover, the interaction between region and mask had a significant influence on IPS perception. Among all test combinations, only the IPS perceived by Taiwanese participants facing confederates without surgical masks exceeded 1.5m. This study revealed that the wearing of surgical masks for health protection during the pandemic influences IPS perception in different regions. The current findings may provide useful information for social interaction and environmental design during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Building Embodied Spaces for Spatial Memory Neurorehabilitation with Virtual Reality in Normal and Pathological Aging

Along with deficits in spatial cognition, a decline in body-related information is observed in aging and is thought to contribute to impairments in navigation, memory, and space perception. According to the embodied cognition theories, bodily and environmental information play a crucial role in defining cognitive representations. Thanks to the possibility to involve body-related information, manipulate environmental stimuli, and add multisensory cues, virtual reality is one of the best candidates for spatial memory rehabilitation in aging for its embodied potential. However, current virtual neurorehabilitation solutions for aging and neurodegenerative diseases are in their infancy. Here, we discuss three concepts that could be used to improve embodied representations of the space with virtual reality. The virtual bodily representation is the combination of idiothetic information involved during virtual navigation thanks to input/output devices; the spatial affordances are environmental or symbolic elements used by the individual to act in the virtual environment; finally, the virtual enactment effect is the enhancement on spatial memory provided by actively (cognitively and/or bodily) interacting with the virtual space and its elements. Theoretical and empirical findings will be presented to propose innovative rehabilitative solutions in aging for spatial memory and navigation.

Imaginative vision of space in geopolitics: approach to study

The vision of space in critical geopolitics, expressed through the image, is defined. The geopolitical concept of space is interpreted as the result of the geopolitical interaction of the latter with the outside world. Its historical development, the nature of organisation and behavior in relation to other geopolitical entities play a decisive role in this regard. The accumulation of these processes over time forms the semantics of stereotypical political ideas about space, such as: mission, security, buffering, a tendency to integrate and interpenetrate attractiveness, conflict, centrality, peripherality, etc., expressing themselves in a geopolitical image. The images of space, which are becoming increasingly important in geopolitical interaction, direct modern geopolitics to a deeper understanding of the status, role and orientation of various entities expressing geopolitics. A system-representative model of the study of the geopolitical image of space as a basis of methodological orientation, presented as the main idea of the study, has been developed. The model synthesises the interaction between the main factors and elements that form the geopolitical vision of space, which are projected onto its image in a dependent relationship. With this model, we defend the idea of launching an algorithm that adequately structures the process of forming a geopolitical image of space. The attributes that determine the formation of the geopolitical image of space have been displayed: factors of perception of space of internal and external character; sources of space perception (social experience and education, art, media products, maps, media); geopolitical identification; geopolitical identity; geopolitical discourse; semantic stratification and the scale of the geopolitical image.