Three spaces of spatial cognition

As we move about and interact in the world, we keep track of different spac es, among them the space of navigation, the space immediately around the bo dy, and the space of the body. We review research showing that these spaces are conceptualized differently. Knowledge of the space of navigation is sy stematically distorted. For example, people mentally rotate roads and land masses to greater correspondence with global reference frames, they mentall y align roads and land masses, they overestimate distances near the viewpoi nt relative to those far from it. These and other distortions indicate that the space of navigation is schematized to elements and spatial relations r elative to reference frames and perspective, The space around the body is o rganized into a mental framework consisting of extensions of the major axes of the body. Times to report objects around the body suggest that the rela tive accessibility of the axes depends on their perceptual and functional p roperties and the relation of the body to the world. Finally, times to veri fy named or depicted body parts indicate that body schemas depend on percep tual and functional significance. Thus, these spaces (and they are not the only ones important to human interaction) differ from one another and are n ot: conceptualized as Euclidean. Rather they are schematized into elements and spatial relations that reflect perceptual and conceptual significance.