The Spatial Foundations of Language and Cognition

This book presents recent research on the role of space as a mechanism in language use and learning. It proceeds from the notion that cognition in real time, developmental time, and over evolutionary time occurs in space, and that the physical properties of space may provide insights into basic cognitive processes, including memory, attention, action, and perception. It looks at how physical space and landmarks are used in cognitive representations and serve as the basis of human cognition in a range of core mechanisms to index memories and ground meanings that are not themselves explicitly about space. The editors have brought together experimental psychologists, computer scientists, robotocists, linguists, and researchers in child language in order to consider the nature and applications of this research and in particular its implications for understanding the processes involved in language acquisition.

Kelly S. Mix is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the Cognitive Development Laboratory at Michigan State University. She is the co-author, with J. Huttenlocher and S. C. Levine, of Quantitative Development in Infancy and Early Childhood (OUP 2002). Linda B. Smith is Chancellor's Professor of Psychology and Director of the Cognitive Development Laboratory at Indiana University. She has published widely on cognition and language acquisition. Michael Gasser is Associate Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science at Indiana University. He has published widely on cognition and language acquisition. S. Mix is Director of the Cognitive Development Laboratory at Michigan State University. She is the co-author, with J. Huttenlocher and S. C. Levine, of Quantitative Development in Infancy and Early Childhood (OUP USA 2002).

- Part I: Thinking Through Space - 1: Andy Clark: Minds in Space - 2: Michael Spivey, Daniel C. Richardson, and Carlos A. Zednik: Language is Spatial, Not Special: On the Demise of the Symbolic Approximation Hypothesis - 3: Kelly S. Mix: Spatial Tools for Mathematical Thought - 4: Michael Ramscar, Teenie Matlock, and Lera Boroditsky: Time, Motion, and Meaning: The Experiential Basis of Abstract Thought - Part II: From Embodiment to Abstract Thought - 5: Janellen Huttenlocher, Stella F. Lourenco, and Marina Vasilyeva: Perspectives on Spatial Development - 6: John Lipinski, John P. Spencer, and Larissa K. Samuelson: It's in the Eye of the Beholder: Spatial Language and Spatial Memory Use the Same Perceptual Reference Frames - 7: Barbara Landau, Kirsten O'Hearn, and James E. Hoffman: Tethering to the Word, Coming Undone - 8: Laura A. Carlson: Encoding Space in Spatial Language - Part III: Using Space to Ground Language - 9: Linda B. Smith and Larissa K. Samuelson: Objects in Space and Mind: From Reaching to Words - 10: Chen Yu and Dana Ballard: The Role of the Body in Infant Language Learning - 11: Erin Cannon and Paul R. Cohen: Talk About Motion: The Semantic Representation of Verbs by Motion Dynamics