Spatial Determinants of Attention

Abstract

When an animal engages in a directed course of action, it organizes its behavior with reference to the position of its body, using the spatial coordinates of the surrounding environment. All natural environments have a spatial organization that can be mapped in a Cartesian coordinate system. Although this fact seems intuitive today, the question of how space is represented within the observer has been one of the enduring problems for philosophers and scientists throughout the ages. Kant (1931) argued that humans have an intrinsic spatial grid that provides an internal representation of external Cartesian space. According to Kant, this spatial grid provides an a priori framework on which all external reality is organized.