These maps are made for walking - Task hierarchy of spatial cognition

Abstract

Spatial behaviours and abilities do not form a monolithic module of cognition but can be subdivided into a hierarchy of behaviours, mechanisms, and representations. This hierarchical structure is a result of cognitive evolution. Therefore, the ordering of the individual modules will follow the general rules of phylogeny. In particular, the complexity of spatial tasks to be solved by an organism and the behaviours evolved as adaptation to these tasks is of great relevance. In this paper, we present an approach to spatial hierarchy based on the complexity of the tasks, rather than on the complexity of the underlying mechanisms. Individual levels of the task hierachy are discussed from a theoretical point of view and specific experimental examples are given. In conclusion, hierachies based on tasks seem to differ from representational hierarchies in three respects, the treatment of landmarks, the role of metric information, and the relation of language and space. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.