Space to reason : a spatial theory of human thought /

Space to reason : a spatial theory of human thought /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Knauff, Markus.
Imprint:	Cambridge, Mass. : The MIT Press, ©2013. ©2013
Description:	1 online resource (290 pages)
Language:	English
Subject:	Thought and thinking. Reasoning. Space. Decision making. Logic. Space perception. Thinking Decision Making Logic Space Perception Space perception. Logic. Decision making. Reasoning. Space. Thought and thinking.
Format:	E-Resource Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11174847

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780262313643 0262313642 9781299265547 1299265545 9780262018654 0262018659
Digital file characteristics:	data file
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Print version record.
Summary:	"Many scholars believe that visual mental imagery plays a key role in reasoning. In Space to Reason, Markus Knauff argues against this view, proposing that visual images are not relevant for reasoning and can even impede the process. He also argues against the claim that human thinking is solely based on abstract symbols and is completely embedded in language. Knauff proposes a third way to think about human reasoning that relies on supramodal spatial layout models, which are more abstract than pictorial images and more concrete than linguistic representations. He argues that these spatial layout models are at the heart of human thought, even thought about nonspatial relations in the world. For Knauff the visual images that we so often associate with reasoning are only in the foreground of conscious experience. Behind the images, the actual logical work is carried out by reasoning-specific operations on these spatial layout models. Knauff also offers a solution to the problem of indeterminacy in human reasoning, introducing the notion of a preferred layout model, which is one layout model among others that has the best chance of being mentally constructed and thus guides the further process of thought. Knauff's "space to reason" theory covers the functional, the algorithmic, and the implementational level of analysis and is corroborated by psychological experiments, functional brain imaging, and computational modeling."--Publisher's description
Other form:	Print version: Knauff, Markus. Space to reason. Cambridge, Mass. : The MIT Press, 2013 9780262018654
Standard no.:	40022059900

Table of Contents:

Inner eye and inner space
Reasoning and spatial layout models
Reasoning and imageability
Reasoning and working memory
Reasoning and the brain
Reasoning and indeterminacy
The core theory in a computer program
Explaining the myth of thinking in pictures
What we can learn from a Neanderthal woman.