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Reference Frames

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of GIS

  • 183 Accesses

Synonyms

Coordinate Systems; Reference Frames; Reference Systems

Definition

Humans conceptualize an entity’s spatial location in terms of qualitative relation to other entities, rather than metric coordinates. This has wide-ranging implications across fields in cognitive science and has led to the identification of a set of concepts called frame of reference (henceforth FoR). FoRs allow a systematic schematization of space by relating a to-be-located entity (including the self) to its environment (typically another entity) on the basis of qualitative direction concepts such as left, north, or point-of-view from above or from the self. Psychological research in particular distinguishes most centrally between allocentric (ego-independent) and egocentric (viewer-based) FoRs (Klatzky, 1998). In language, terms expressing directiongenerally require a FoR due to the variability of concepts that can provide a basis for establishing a directional relation between entities. Research in this...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bangor University, Gwynedd, UK

    Thora Tenbrink

Authors
  1. Thora Tenbrink
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Correspondence to Thora Tenbrink .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    Shashi Shekhar

  2. Rutgers Business School, Newark, New Jersey, USA

    Hui Xiong

  3. The University of Iowa Tippie College of Business, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

    Xun Zhou

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Tenbrink, T. (2015). Reference Frames. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H., Zhou, X. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23519-6_1538-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23519-6_1538-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23519-6

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