## Large-scale and Small-scale Spatial Cognition Task Battery: Technical Document Overview ### Overview The image is a comprehensive technical diagram illustrating a battery of cognitive tasks designed to assess spatial abilities. It is divided into two primary sections: **Large-scale spatial cognition** (top half) and **Small-scale spatial cognition** (bottom half). Each section contains multiple distinct tasks, presented with visual examples, textual descriptions, and sample questions. The document serves as a reference for the types of stimuli and questions used in spatial cognition research or assessment. ### Components/Axes The image is organized into a grid-like structure with clear headings and task labels. **Top Section: Large-scale spatial cognition** * **Tasks:** Direction estimation, Distance estimation, Map sketching, Route retracing, Shortcut discovery. * **Visual Elements:** Each task includes a "Bird's-eye view" or "Video walkthrough" image (e.g., a room with a stove, daisy, and storage chest; a maze-like environment). These are accompanied by multiple-choice questions (A, B, C, D) or instructions for sketching/selecting options. * **Textual Elements:** Task titles, question prompts, and answer choices are clearly printed. **Bottom Section: Small-scale spatial cognition** * **Tasks:** Mental rotation (MRT), Perspective taking (PTT), Maze completion (MCT), Water level (WLT), Minnesota paper form board (MPFB), Judgement of line orientation (JLO), Selective attention (SAtt), Corsi block tapping (CBTT), Spatial addition (SAdd), Cambridge spatial working memory (CSWM). * **Structure:** Each task is presented in a two-row format: * **Visual Row:** Shows graphical stimuli (e.g., 3D block figures, arrays of dots, maze grids, tilted bottles, puzzle pieces, lines, apples in a grid, blue blocks, arrays of blue/red dots, blue boxes with treasures). * **Textual Row:** Presents a parallel version using alphanumeric codes or matrices (e.g., `[4,0,7]`, `[1,1,1,1; 0,0,0,0]`, `A: (0,0), B: (1,1)...`). * **Textual Elements:** Task titles with acronyms (e.g., MRT, PTT), instructions, questions, and multiple-choice options. **Legend (Bottom of Image)** * A color-coded legend categorizes the tasks into five cognitive domains: * **Cyan (C):** Spatial visualization * **Green (G):** Spatial orientation * **Orange (O):** Spatial perception * **Purple (P):** Selective spatial attention * **Red (R):** Visuospatial working memory ### Detailed Analysis #### Large-scale Spatial Cognition Tasks 1. **Direction estimation:** * **Visual:** A bird's-eye view of a room with a stove, a daisy, and a storage chest. A red arrow indicates a facing direction. * **Question:** "Pretend that you are standing facing the stove as shown in this image. At what direction is the storage chest relative to you?" * **Choices:** A) 135, B) -11, C) -10, D) 41. 2. **Distance estimation:** * **Visual:** The same room layout. * **Question:** "Pretend that you are standing facing the daisy as shown in this image. What are the Euclidean distances (in meters) between the storage chest and the stove?" * **Choices:** A) 6.8, 0.2, B) 1.8, 5.0, C) 1.8, 2.8, D) 2.8, 1.8. 3. **Map sketching:** * **Visual:** A "Video walkthrough" image of an environment. * **Instruction:** "You are shown a video walkthrough of your shortest path through an environment. Sketch a map of the environment with the locations of the start, goal, and yourself. You are given four choices of map sketches. Pick the best option." * **Choices:** Four schematic maps labeled "Daisy," "Storage chest," "Stove," "Start," and "Goal" with 'X' marks in different configurations. 4. **Route retracing:** * **Visual:** A "Video walkthrough" image. * **Instruction:** "You are shown a video walkthrough demonstrating the shortest path from a start location to a goal location. You are placed at the start location. Retrace the path to the goal." 5. **Shortcut discovery:** * **Visual:** A "Video walkthrough" image. * **Instruction:** "You are shown a video walkthrough of some route to the goal from a start location. The route may be long with unnecessary detours. You are placed at the start location. Find a shortcut to the goal." #### Small-scale Spatial Cognition Tasks (Visual & Textual Examples) * **Mental rotation (MRT):** Visual: Four 3D block figures (A, B, C, D) and a reference figure. Question: "Which image shows the reference object rotated in 3D?" Textual: Four 2D arrays of numbers and a reference array. Question: "Which array shows the reference array rotated in 2D?" * **Perspective taking (PTT):** Visual: A scene with a bat, book, and apple. Question: "Pretend that you are standing at the bat and facing the book. At what clockwise angle (in degrees) is the apple located relative to you?" Choices: A) -35°, B) -15°, C) -115°, D) -55°. Textual: A grid of numbers with a reference point. Question: "Pretend that you are standing at 0 and facing 2. At what clockwise angle (in degrees) is 7 relative to you?" Choices: A) -115°, B) -135°, C) -165°, D) -155°. * **Maze completion (MCT):** Visual: A 2D maze with an agent (A) and goal (G). Instruction: "You are placed in a maze. Navigate to the goal using [↑, ↓, ←, →]." Textual: A text-based maze grid with A, G, and 1s (walls). Instruction: "You are placed in a 2D text maze. Navigate to the goal using [↑, ↓, ←, →]." * **Water level (WLT):** Visual: A tilted bottle with a water line. Question: "What is the water level in the rotated container?" Choices: A, B, C, D (different line angles). Textual: Not explicitly shown in this panel. * **Minnesota paper form board (MPFB):** Visual: Puzzle pieces and a target shape. Question: "How are these puzzle pieces put together? The pieces can be rotated but not flipped." Textual: Arrays of 1s and 0s representing pieces. Question: "How are these array pieces put together? They merge at the edges (1s). The pieces can be rotated in multiples of 90 degrees but not flipped." * **Judgement of line orientation (JLO):** Visual: A reference line and multiple choice lines (1-10). Question: "Which pair of lines below match the angle between the two lines above?" Choices: A) 1 and 2, B) 3 and 10, C) 1 and 3, D) 4 and 5. Textual: A reference array of numbers and choice arrays. Question: "Which choice has the same angle between lines 1,2 as in the reference array?" * **Selective attention (SAtt):** Visual: A grid of red apples and green pears. Question: "What are the (row, column) grid locations of the reference object? The top-left element is (0,0)." Choices: A, B, C, D with coordinate pairs. Textual: A grid of numbers (g's and q's). Question: "What are the (row, column) grid locations of 'g'? The top-left element of the grid is (0,0)." Choices: A, B, C, D with coordinate pairs. * **Corsi block tapping (CBTT):** Visual: A set of blue boxes with a tap sequence highlighted in yellow. Question: "Here is a set of blue boxes. The boxes are tapped in a sequence (highlighted in yellow). What is the sequence of taps? Use the box ids in the reference image." Choices: A. 1, 4, 2, B. 4, 2, 1, C. 2, 4, 1, D. 1, 2, 4. Textual: A set of boxes (B) laid out in space with a tap sequence (P). Question: "What is the sequence of taps? Use the reference ids." Choices: A. 3, 4, 6, B. 4, 6, 3, C. 6, 3, 4, D. 4, 3, 6. * **Spatial addition (SAdd):** Visual: Two arrays of blue and red dots. Question: "What is the sum of the two arrays? Empty cells are 0s, blue cells are 1s. Only combine cells with the same spatial positions. Ignore distractors in the sum." Textual: Two matrices of B's and R's. Question: "What is the sum of the two arrays? 0s are empty cells. B's are 1s. R's are distractors. Only combine cells with the same spatial positions. Ignore distractors in the sum." * **Cambridge spatial working memory (CSWM):** Visual: A sequence of screens showing blue boxes, some opening to reveal treasures. Instruction: "Interactively open blue boxes to find hidden treasures ( ). After a treasure is found, it is moved to a new box. It never reappears in the same box. Find all 6 treasures to win. Note: The box integer ids change randomly after each turn. Remember boxes based on spatial positions." Textual: A sequence of screens showing numbered boxes and treasures. Instruction: "Interactively open boxes (non-zero integers) to find hidden treasures ( ). After a treasure is found, it is moved to a new box. It never reappears in the same box. Find all 6 treasures to win. Note: The box integer ids change randomly after each turn. Remember boxes based on spatial positions." ### Key Observations 1. **Dual-Format Testing:** Nearly every small-scale task is presented in both a **visual/graphical format** and a **textual/symbolic format**, suggesting the battery is designed to test spatial reasoning across different representational modalities. 2. **Task Categorization:** The legend explicitly groups the 10 small-scale tasks into five theoretical constructs of spatial cognition (Visualization, Orientation, Perception, Attention, Working Memory). 3. **Large vs. Small Scale:** The large-scale tasks involve navigation, perspective, and mapping within a simulated 3D environment, while small-scale tasks involve manipulation, rotation, and memory of abstract 2D/3D objects and patterns. 4. **Question Consistency:** Multiple-choice questions consistently offer four options (A, B, C, D). 5. **Spatial Grounding:** Instructions frequently emphasize egocentric perspective ("pretend you are standing at X facing Y") and precise spatial relationships (angles, distances, grid coordinates). ### Interpretation This image documents a standardized experimental or clinical battery for dissecting the multifaceted nature of human spatial intelligence. The clear separation between large-scale (environmental) and small-scale (object-based) cognition reflects a fundamental distinction in cognitive neuroscience. The parallel visual and textual versions of tasks are particularly noteworthy; they likely serve to control for or investigate the influence of presentation format on spatial reasoning, separating pure spatial ability from verbal or symbolic mediation. The battery appears designed to isolate specific cognitive processes. For example, **Mental Rotation (MRT)** targets the ability to rotate objects in mind, **Perspective Taking (PTT)** assesses egocentric transformation, and **Cambridge Spatial Working Memory (CSWM)** evaluates the ability to track changing spatial locations. The inclusion of **Selective Attention (SAtt)** within a spatial grid suggests an investigation into how attention is deployed in visual space. From a research perspective, this battery could be used to profile individual differences, study the effects of brain injury or neurological conditions, or track developmental changes in spatial skills. The structured, multi-task approach allows researchers to determine whether a deficit is general or specific to a particular spatial sub-process (e.g., poor rotation but intact memory). The emphasis on precise, quantifiable responses (angles, distances, sequences, coordinates) makes the data suitable for rigorous statistical analysis.