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Chapter 1 Functional Significance of Visuospatial Representations Barbara Tversky Abstract Mental spaces are not unitary. Rather, people conceive of different spaces differently, depending on the functions they serve. Four such spaces are considered here. The space of the body subserves proprioception and action; it is divided by body parts, with perceptually salient and functionally significant parts more accessible than others. The space around the body subserves immediate perception and action; it is conceived of in three dimensions in terms of relations of objects to the six sides of the body, front/back, head/feet, left/right. The space of navigation subserves that; it is constructed in memory from multi-modal pieces, typically as a plane. The reconstruction generates systematic errors. The space of external representations, of pictures, maps, charts, and diagrams, serves as cognitive aids to memory and information processing To serve those ends, graphics schematize and may distort information.  Table of Contents Introduction: Four Functional Spaces The Space of the Body The Space Around the Body The Space of Navigation Places Perspective of Acquisition Cognitive Maps Reference Objects Perspective of Judgement Reference Frames Why Systematic Errors? The Space of External Representations Elements Relations Distortions in Memory for External Representations Creating Graphic Representations Comprehending Graphic Representations External and Internal Representations Multiple Functional Systems in the Brain In Conclusion Suggestions for Further Reading References Introduction: Four Functional Spaces When physicists or surveyors exercise their trades, aspects of space are foreground, and the things in space background. Things are located in space by means of an extrinsic reference system, in terms of metric measurement. Within the reference system, aspects of the space, whether large or small, distal or proximal, for entities small or large