Real space and represented space: Cross-cultural perspectives

Abstract This paper examines the contribution of cross-cultural studies to our understanding of the perception and representation of space. A cross-cultural survey of the basic difficulties in understanding pictures—ranging from the failure to recognise a picture as a representation to the inability to recognise the object represented in the picture— indicates that similar difficulties occur in pictorial and nonpictorial cultrues. The experimental work on pictorial space derives from two distinct traditions: the study of picture perception in “remote” populations and the study of the perceptual illusions. A comprison of the findings on pictorial space perception with those on real space perceptual illusions. A comparison of findings on pictorial space perception with those on real space perception and perceptual constancy suggersts that cross-cultural differences in the perception of both real and representational space involve two different types of skills: those related exclusively to either real space or representational space, and those related to both. Different cultural groups use different skills to perform the same perceptual tasks.