Unraveling the Complexity of Sensory Space Perception

Despite decades of research, space perception remains a challenging problem. Key aspects like the mapping between physical and perceptual space, the link between perceived space and action, and the crucial elements of environmental stimulation are not fully understood. This gap becomes evident when creating realistic virtual environments, especially large-scale ones that resemble real-world counterparts. In the past two decades, research has questioned the assumption that consciously experienced sensory perception is causally linked to action. The ecological tradition suggests spatial behavior can be controlled by specific environmental stimuli without needing internal representations. Another line of research shows that processes underlying some actions are distinct from those producing conscious perceived space. While some studies argue that conscious 3D representation isn't necessary for certain actions, other research opposes this view. Historically, the focus has been on phenomenology, investigating why the world appears as it does, and considering perceived space crucial for spatial behavior.

Over the past two decades, two lines of research have begun to challenge the assumption that consciously experienced sensory perception is causally connected to action. The first line is research within the ecological tradition. A widely accepted assumption within this tradition is that it is possible to understand spatial behavior in terms of control by very specific aspects of sensory stimulation (e.g., the global radial optical flow pattern associated with observer translation) without the need to posit any internal representation, such as “visual space.” The second line consists of research showing that the processes underlying certain forms of action appear to be distinct from those processes that give rise to consciously experienced perceived space. Although these two lines of research suggest that a consciously experienced three-dimensional representation of nearby objects may not be necessary for the control of certain types of action, there is a significant amount of research indicating exactly the opposite. However, if future research reveals that much spatial behavior is not controlled by conscious perception, then the fundamental reason for investigating the phenomenology of perceived space will be substantially undermined. We are confident that phenomenology will continue to be an important topic, even if it is for its intrinsic interest. Despite the importance of the phenomenology of perceived space, we believe that recent advances from various fields, including psychology, neuroscience, and computer science, will ultimately clarify how we perceive space.

Space perception is a process through which humans and other organisms become aware of the relative positions of their own bodies and objects around them. Space perception provides cues, such as depth and distance, that are important for movement and orientation to the environment.

Consequently, this Research Topic will welcome studies that fit within classical themes, such as:
- The Problem of Visual Space Perception
- Binocular Perception
- Spatial Localization and Visual Directions
- Stereopsis
- Monocular Perception
- Stimulus Inadequacy: The Fundamental Problem of Monocular Perception
- Pictorial Cues
- Oculomotor Adjustments
- Organizing Processes and Observer Tendencies
- Empiricist View: Perceived Size and Shape, Lateral or Parallaxes Motion
- Motion in Depth
- Perceived Object Motions
- Detecting Motion
- Visual Illusions;

as well as more recent themes reflected in different recently published papers on the perception of space, such as:

- Perceiving distance in virtual reality
- Egocentric distance
- Exocentric distance
- Size perception
- Geometry of visual space perception
- Perceiving layout and knowing distances
- Visual perception of location and distance
- Allocentric and egocentric spatial representations
- Length perception Geographical slant perception
- The role of effort in perceiving distance
- Visual perception of egocentric distance in real and virtual environments
- Theories of size and distance perception
- Spatial updating
- Self-motion and orientation
- Virtual locomotion
- Calibration of human locomotion
- The role of effort on perceived egocentric and exocentric distance judgments
- The visual perception of 3D shape
- Distance perception in immersive virtual environments
- Judging perceived and traversed distance in virtual environments
- Comparison of indicators of perceived egocentric distance under full-cue and reduced-cue conditions
- The influence of restricted viewing conditions on egocentric distance perception: Implications for real and virtual indoor environments
- Distance perception in real and virtual environments
- Egocentric distance perception: A comparative study investigating differences between real and virtual environments
- Auditory distance perception