Geometry, features, landmarks, and place learning: Developmental and comparative perspectives

Ken Cheng and Nora S. Newcombe

Summary

In this chapter, we examine two broad topics in human children and adults as well as other vertebrate animals. One topic is how the shape of the surrounding environment, along with features found on the shape (colors, objects, and the like) are used to orient. This topic is often called the “geometric module”, but one of our main aims is to clarify the notion of what it means to call a representation “modular”. We have recently published a review of this literature (Cheng & Newcombe, in press); this chapter draws on the review and also updates recent developments. We amplify theoretical considerations on how geometric information is encoded, and how modularity might be tested. A second topic is how discrete landmarks are used to find a target place. We will review how distance, directions, and configurational information are used, and draw comparisons across species. Finally, we put the two topics together in comparing and contrasting the use of continuous surfaces vs. discrete landmarks.