Abstract
Physical space has unique properties which form the basis of fundamental capabilities of cognitive systems. This paper explores some cognitive aspects of perception and knowledge representation and explains why spatial knowledge is of particular interest for cognitive science. It is suggested that ‘spatial inference engines’ provide the basis for rather general cognitive capabilities inside and outside the spatial domain. The role of abstraction in spatial reasoning and the advantages of qualitative spatial knowledge over quantitative knowledge are discussed. The usefulness of spatial representations with a low degree of abstraction is shown. An example from vision (the aquarium domain) is used to illustrate in which ways knowledge about space may be uncertain or incomplete. Parallels are drawn between the spatial and the temporal domains. A concrete approach for the representation of qualitative spatial knowledge on the basis of ‘conceptual neighborhood’ is suggested and some potential application areas are mentioned.
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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Freksa, C. (1991). Qualitative Spatial Reasoning. In: Mark, D.M., Frank, A.U. (eds) Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space. NATO ASI Series, vol 63. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2606-9_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2606-9_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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