Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
10 results found in spatial cognition.
- 3D Audio (Three-Dimensional Audio, Binaural Audio, Immersive Audio)
- Audio technology that creates the perception of sound sources positioned in three-dimensional space around the listener, including above, below, and at varying distances. 3D audio uses head-related tr…
- Egocentric Spatial Reasoning (First-Person Spatial Understanding, User-Relative Spatial Reasoning)
- The ability of a system to understand and describe the spatial positions of objects relative to the user's body and perspective, rather than from a bird's-eye or absolute reference frame. For AI syste…
- Environmental Legibility (Legibility of the Environment, Spatial Legibility)
- The ease with which people can perceive, understand, and form mental maps of a physical environment in order to orient themselves and navigate through it. Coined by urban planner Kevin Lynch, legibili…
- Landmark Knowledge
- A type of spatial knowledge involving the recognition and memory of distinctive features or objects in an environment that serve as reference points for navigation. Landmarks are fixed objects at spec…
- Mental Map (Cognitive Map, Mental Model of Space)
- An internal cognitive representation of a physical environment, including spatial relationships, landmarks, routes, and distances. For people with blindness or visual impairments, building a mental ma…
- Points of interest (POI, Landmarks)
- Specific locations in the environment that are useful or relevant to a user, such as shops, restaurants, transit stops, public buildings, and other named places. In accessible navigation for people wi…
- Pre-journey Learning (Pre-visit Spatial Learning, Virtual Pre-exploration)
- The practice of learning about an environment's spatial layout before physically visiting it, typically through tactile maps, verbal descriptions, or virtual exploration tools. For people who are blin…
- Semantic feature (Environmental feature, Landmark annotation)
- A meaningful environmental attribute associated with a specific location in a navigation system, such as a doorway, floor surface change, point of interest, or tactile ground indicator. In accessible …
- Sighted Memory (Visual Memory, Sighted Recall)
- A mental representation of a physical environment developed through past visual experience, used by people who lose their sight later in life to navigate and understand spaces they previously knew vis…
- Spatial Awareness (Spatial Cognition, Environmental Awareness)
- The understanding of one's surrounding environment and one's own position within it. In accessibility contexts, spatial awareness encompasses multiple dimensions: the scale and shape of an area, one's…