Language as a mental travel guide. (19th June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Davis, Charles P.; Altmann, Gerry T. M.; Yee, Eiling
• Is Part Of: Behavioral and brain sciences. Volume 43(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-06-19
• Subjects: Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Human behavior -- Periodicals; Animal behavior -- Periodicals; Brain -- Periodicals; 616.89142
• DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X19003182
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0140-525X

Abstract

Abstract: Gilead et al.'s approach to human cognition places abstraction and prediction at the heart of "mental travel" under a "representational diversity" perspective that embraces foundational concepts in cognitive science. But, it gives insufficient credit to the possibility that the process of abstraction produces a gradient, and underestimates the importance of a highly influential domain in predictive cognition: language, and related, the emergence of experientially based structure through time.