Hi Morten, I think "spatial cognition" will match what you're looking for. It's usually called "spatial cognition" in the academic literature. So, memory is a part of cognition, as are attention and perception. As you read about spatial cognition in general, you'll find the research will then focus in one area or the other.
The most prolific author I remember in this area was Barbara Tversky http://waldron.stanford.edu/faculty/tversky.html, wife of Amos Tversky. (Amos later became one of the only psychologists to win a Nobel Prize. It was the prize for Economics, given for his work on biases in cognitive heuristics <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias>.) Barbara has a few chapters in this huge book: http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Handbook-Memory-Endel-Tulving/dp/0195122658, which is a good place to start since I assume you can find it in a library and be able to get a lot of resources from it. I notice she's got some articles in ACM, too, if you're a member there. A bit about spatial cognition, memory, and perception: Some of BTversky's work deals with how a person sets up a frame of reference. It can be egocentric, based on one's own location, or allocentric, based on another's location. This is important in how you learn, remember, navigate, or judge a space - even if it's an abstract space. So, users might try to learn an abstract space by figuring out a frame of reference to explain how it's structured. (Their mental model now has a spatial component to it.) Of course, their judgment can be messed up by inherent biases or other habits. BTversky writes about one called the landmark fallacy, where people judge space differently based on their proximity to a landmark. I say all of this because you can use this stuff to structure an experience well and to supplement gaps in peoples' judgment. As I said earlier, cognition is the main topic. Attention, memory, and perception are all parts of cognition. I think you'll get better results by looking for spatial cognition and then branching out from there. (I write all this 'cause i studied cognitive science in school and absolutely loved this part of the research and how it informed mental model studies.) I hope this helps. - Jay On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 5:47 AM, Morten Hjerde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm currently thinking a lot about spatial reasoning and spatial memory > related to small screens. > > There is a lot of work done on spatial reasoning by the Gestalt > psychologists. I'm familiar with the "gestalt principles" (the little > education I have is in typography). But I haven't found much on spatial > memory. I found an article by Gabriel White in *Interactions* about the > MotoFone with some discussion on spatial and gestural memory. > > Does anyone know about additional resources or research on spatial memory? > > > -- > Morten Hjerde > http://sender11.typepad.com > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Jay A. Morgan Information Architect. Business man. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
