Spatial Cognition - WS 2011/12

A Introduction

1) 02 Nov 11:

• Introduction to Spatial Cognition (further reading: Schultheis & Carlson (to appear))
• Distribution of topics for the presentations

B Spatial Representations

2) 09 Nov 11:

• Cognitive Representations (Palmer (1978))

• Analogical Representations (Sloman (1971, 1975))

4) 23 Nov 11:

• Analogical Representations: Example 1 (Funt (1980))

5) 30 Nov 11:

• Analogical Representations: Example 2 (Glasgow & Papdias (1992))

C Cognitive Architectures

6) 07 Dec 11:

• Casimir (Schultheis & Barkowsky (2011))

7) 14 Dec 11:

• DRS (Chandrasekaran et al. (2011))

D Spatial Language

8) 21 Dec 11:

• Spatial Term Use overview (Logan & Sadler (1996))

9) 11 Jan 12:

• Attentional Vector Sum (AVS) model (Regier & Carlson (2001))

10) 18 Jan 12:

• Dynamic cinematic routines (Coventry et al. (2005))

11) 25 Jan 12:

• A Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) model of spatial term use (Lipinski et al. (2011))

E Perspective Taking

12) 01 Feb 12:

• Types of perspective taking & imaginal perspective taking model (Michelon & Zacks (2006, pp. 327 - 328); May (2004, Sections 1, 1.1 - 1.3); Schultheis (2007))

• Type I visual perspective taking model (Gunzelmann (2008))

14) 15 Feb 12:

• Type II visual perspective taking model (Trafton et al. (2005))

Reading Material

All reading material will be made available as pdf files once the seminar starts.

• Chandrasekaran, B., Banerjee, B., Kurup, U., & Lele, O. (2011). Augmenting cognitive architectures to support diagrammatic imagination. Topics in Cognitive Science, 3.
• Coventry, K. R., Cangelosi, A., Rajapakse, R., Bacon, A., Newstead, S., Joyce, D., et al. (2005). Spatial prepositions and vague quantifiers: Implementing the functional geometric framework. In C. Freksa, M. Knauff, B. Krieg- Brückner, B. Nebel, & T. Barkowsky (Eds.), Spatial cognition IV: Reasoning, Action, Interaction. Berlin: Springer.
• Funt, B. V. (1980). Problem-solving with diagrammatic representations. Artificial Intelligence, 13.
• Glasgow, J., & Papadias, D. (1992). Computational imagery. Cognitive Science, 16.
• Gunzelman, G. (2008). Strategy generalization across orientation tasks: Testing a computational cognitive model. Cognitive Science, 32.
• Lipinski, J., Schneegans, S., Sandamirskaya, Y., Spencer, J. P., & Schöner, G. (2011). A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
• Logan, G. D., & Sadler, D. D. (1996). A computational analysis of the apprehension of spatial relations. In P. Bloom, M. Peterson, M. Garrett, & L. Nadel (Eds.), Language and space. MA: M.I.T Press.
• May, M. (2004). Imaginal perspective switches in remem- bered environments: transformation versus interfer- ence accounts. Cognitive Psychology, 48.
• Michelon, P., & Zacks, J. M. (2006). Two kinds of visual perspective taking. Perception & Psychophysics, 68.
• Palmer, S. (1978). Fundamental aspects of cognitive representation. In E. Rosch & B. Lloyd (Eds.) Cognition and Categorization, Hillsdale, NJ: LEA.
• Regier, T., & Carlson, L. A. (2001). Grounding spatial language in perception: An empirical and computational in- vestigation. Journal of experimental psychology:General, 130(2).
• Schultheis, H. (2007a). A control perspective on imaginal perspective taking. In R. L. Lewis, T. A. Polk, & J. E. Laird (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Cognitive Modeling (ICCM), 2007, Ann Arbor, MI.
• Schultheis, H., & Barkowsky, T. (2011). Casimir: An architecture for mental spatial knowledge processing. Topics in Cognitive Science, 3.
• Schultheis, H., & Carlson, L. A. (to appear). Spatial Reasoning. In D. Reisberg (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Psychology.
• Sloman, A. (1971). Interactions between philosophy and artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence, 2.
• Sloman, A. (1975). Afterthoughts on analogical representations. In B. L. Nash-Webber & R. Schank (Eds.), Proc. theoretical issues in natural language processing. Cambridge, MA: Association for Computer Linguistics.
• Trafton, J. G., Cassimatis, N. L., Bugajska, M. D., Brock, D. P., Mintz, F. E., & Schultz, A. C. (2005). Enabling effective human-robot interaction using perspective- taking in robots. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics – Part A: Systems and humans, 35(4).

Course Credit

• to read all papers,
• to prepare 2 questions regarding each topic (based on the reading material for this topic)
• to present at least one topic
• to write a term paper on the topic you presented during the course. Here is a template for the term paper.

Questions for each topic have to be submitted by email to schulth@informatik.uni-bremen.de by Tuesdays preceding the day when the corresponding topic is presented and discussed. Questions will be graded according to quality. For example, questions only asking for key terms (explained) in the reading material of the topic (e.g., "What is Spatial Cognition?") will receive no credit. Questions should rather address conceptual issues arising from the text such as, for instance, regarding seeming contradictions or feasibility issues. Presentations should be well-prepared, well-informed, and above all serve to help your classmates learn about and understand the facts and issues connected with your topic and it should enable them to enter into a qualified discussion about it. Ideally, plan on a 30 - 45 min duration for your presentation and a subsequent in-depth discussions (which you will also moderate). Presentations will be graded and will account for 40% of your overall grade. Performance on questions and the term paper will account for 20% and 40% of your overall grade, respectively.