Carving up space at imaginary joints: Can people mentally impose arbitrary spatial category boundaries?

Simmering, Vanessa R. and Spencer, John P. (2007) Carving up space at imaginary joints: Can people mentally impose arbitrary spatial category boundaries? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 33 (4). pp. 871-894. ISSN 0096-1523

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Abstract

Empirical attempts to understand connections between abstract cognition and sensori-motor processes have pointed toward an embodied view of cognition, where cognitive activity is strongly tied to sensori-motor activity. Here the authors test the ability of the cognitive system to impose structure on the world using a well-established phenomenon in spatial cognition--biases near spatial category boundaries. Results from 5 experiments suggest that participants were unable to mentally impose a spatial category boundary without perceptual support, even when explicitly instructed to do so. The authors conclude by considering the implications of these findings for abstraction within other domains of cognition.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	13 Nov 2015 17:02
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2025 21:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/55268
DOI:	10.1037/0096-1523.33.4.871

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