ABSTRACT
Knowing “where things are” even when objects go out of sight is a skill that comes easily to humans. A number of different paradigms have studied the process of egocentric spatial updating, or the mechanisms involved in locating positions in space relative to oneself after a given spatial transformation. As active observers, we as humans experience a moving world as a result of our own motion or the motion of objects in the environment. Gibson’s (1979) perspective that a primary goal of perception is action (see also Milner & Goodale, 1995) can influence the way one conceptualizes spatial representation. Although Gibson did not consider mental representation a component of perception, a focus on motion of objects and actions of the body can provide a useful link between perception and memory of locations in space. In this chapter, I consider the influence of physical movement on two interactive components of spatial updating: self-transformations and object transformations and the response of the observer.
