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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 25, 2026

The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition

Published on: February 19, 2018

Embodied spatial cognition.

J Gregory Trafton¹, Anthony M Harrison

¹Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.

Topics in Cognitive Science

|August 29, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

We developed a spatial system for embodied AI, demonstrating its ability to model infant gaze-following and perspective-taking abilities using robotic systems.

Keywords:

Cognitive robotics Gaze-following Level 1 visual perspective taking Spatial cognition

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Published on: February 20, 2014

Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Robotics
Developmental Psychology

Background:

Understanding spatial cognition is crucial for developing advanced AI.
Existing embodied cognitive architectures lack sophisticated spatial reasoning capabilities.
Developmental findings in infants offer insights into the emergence of spatial skills.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce a novel spatial system, Specialized Egocentrically Coordinated Spaces (SECS).
To embed SECS within an embodied cognitive architecture (ACT-R Embodied).
To validate the system by modeling key developmental findings in spatial cognition.

Main Methods:

Developed the Specialized Egocentrically Coordinated Spaces (SECS) system.
Integrated SECS into the ACT-R Embodied cognitive architecture.
Modeled two developmental experiments: infant gaze-following (Corkum & Moore, 1998) and Level 1 visual perspective-taking (Moll & Tomasello, 2006) on a robotic platform.

Main Results:

The SECS system successfully modeled gaze-following behavior in a robotic system.
The SECS system accurately replicated Level 1 visual perspective-taking abilities.
The models demonstrated the system's capacity to learn and represent spatial information.

Conclusions:

The Specialized Egocentrically Coordinated Spaces system provides a viable computational model for spatial cognition.
The integration with ACT-R Embodied enables the development of robots with human-like spatial understanding.
This work advances embodied AI by bridging computational modeling with developmental psychology findings.