Euclid's Metamorphoses: a Brief History of Spatial Representations in Memory.

How and in what form(s) is spatial knowledge acquired and stored in memory? Several theoretical models have been proposed in order to describe the mechanisms of spatial memory according to premises borrowed from philosophy: space as it exists in the human mind does not seem to show the same properties as the physical space in which we live. In this paper, we propose to trace the evolution of the concept of spatial representation according to the main theoretical approaches that have had a lasting impact on the history of cognitive sciences. We will be particularly interested in describing what differs between computational approaches and embodied and situated approaches, with respect to the question of the structure, the format, and the geometric properties of spatial representations. The reflection carried out on the basis of this epistemological synthesis leads us to conclude in favor of a constructivist approach, in which the emphasis is put on the role of sensorimotor interactions with the environment during the construction of spatial representations.