The shape of space: Evidence for spontaneous but flexible use of polar coordinates in visuospatial representations (Published in Psychological Science)
Abstract:What is the format of spatial representation? In mathematics, we often conceive of two primary ways of representing two-dimensional space, Cartesian coordinates, which capture horizontal and vertical relations, and polar coordinates, which captures angle and distance relations. Do either of these two coordinate systems play a representational role in the human mind? Six experiments utilizing a simple ‘visual matching’ paradigm show that (1) representational format is recoverable from the errors observers make … Show more
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