ABSTRACT
Comparative psychologists at the turn of the century had been challenged by popular accounts of foresight in what were supposedly forms of mental life that were lower than that of humans. In urban and suburban environments, paths and streets are extensively networked and there are usually several choices at the beginning and at intersections along a route. Routes in flat, homogenous environments can bear directly toward a target. In circumstances such as expansive desert, open sea, or prairies of fresh snow, there are no paths worn on the earth’s surface, and a star on the horizon may serve as a beacon to approach, or the direction of prevailing wind, magnetic force, or ocean current may serve as a line to estimate a course. The analysis suggested that perceived configurations of objects define places, which can be remembered as nodes in larger serial and spatial representations.
