Emile Van Der Zee - Böcker

This book brings new perspectives to bear on the the architecture of the mind and the relationship between language and cognition. It considers how information is linked in the mind between different cognitive and expressive levels - so that people can, for example, talk about what they see and act upon what they hear - and how these linkages are and need to be constrained. The book is concerned in particular with the perception and representation of spatial structure.In the opening chapter the editors address the general issues underlying current research and set each chapter in context. The book is then divided into four parts. The first two discuss the properties of the conceptual to syntactic structure interface and the conceptual to spatial structure interface. Part three examines constraints on the lexical interface and the different kinds of cognitive information in word representations. Part four considers how the neural architecture of the brain constrains mapping relations between different kinds of cognitive information.The authors are psychologists and linguists. They show the insights that can be gained from the joint deployment of theoretical linguistic and experimental psychological research and the value of a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of mind, brain, and language.

This book seeks to explain fundamental aspects of the relationship between language and cognition. It brings new perspectives to bear on the architecture of mind and brain and explores the relationship between language and cognition. It considers how information is linked between different cognitive levels so that, for example, it is possible to explain how people can talk about what they see.In the opening chapter the editors address the general issues underlying current research on cognitive interfaces and set each chapter in context. The book is then divided into four parts. Parts One and Two discuss the properties of two interfaces: (a) the conceptual-to-syntactic structure interface and (b) the conceptual-to-spatial structure interface. Part Three examinesconstraints on the lexical interface by looking at properties of the former two interfaces at the word level. Part Four considers how the neural architecture of the brain constrains mapping relations between different kinds of cognitive information.The authors, drawn from experimental psychology, linguistics, and computer science, together offer a convincing demonstration of the value of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how different kinds of cognitive information are linked in the mind and brain to perform different cognitive tasks.

This book considers how it is possible for people to use directions like 'above the table' or 'over the city'. How does our brain or any other information processing system represent a direction as a spatial entity? And, how is it possible to link such a representation to language, so that we talk about a direction we have in mind? When we look at or imagine a scene, what entities can be employed for representing a direction, and what are the parts in language that can be used to talk about directions? This book brings together research from linguistics, psychology, philosophy, computer science, anthropology, and neuroscience to answer these intriguing questions. By considering direction representation across different languages and in different information processing systems, this book gives an overview of the main issues in this area for both the interested novice and the specialized researcher.

The notions of 'function', 'feature' and 'functional feature' are associated with relatively new developments and insights in several areas of cognition. This book brings together different definitions, insights and research related to defining these notions from such diverse areas as language, perception, categorization and development. Each of the contributors in this book explicitly defines the notion of 'function', 'feature' or 'functional feature' within their own theoretical framework, presents research in which such a notion plays a pivotal role, and discusses the contribution of functional features in relation to their insights in a particular area of cognition. As such, this book not only presents new developments devoted to defining 'function', 'feature' and 'functional feature' in several sub-disciplines of cognitive science, but also offers a focused account of how these notions operate within the cognitive interface linking language and spatial representation. All book chapters are accessible for the interested novice, and offer the specialized researcher new empirical and theoretical insights into defining function, both with respect to the language and space interface and across cognition. The introduction to the book presents the reader with the main issues and viewpoints that are discussed in more detail in each of the book chapters.

The notions of 'function', 'feature' and 'functional feature' are associated with relatively new developments and insights in several areas of cognition. This book brings together different definitions, insights and research related to defining these notions from such diverse areas as language, perception, categorization and development. Each of the contributors in this book explicitly defines the notion of 'function', 'feature' or 'functional feature' within their own theoretical framework, presents research in which such a notion plays a pivotal role, and discusses the contribution of functional features in relation to their insights in a particular area of cognition. As such, this book not only presents new developments devoted to defining 'function', 'feature' and 'functional feature' in several sub-disciplines of cognitive science, but also offers a focused account of how these notions operate within the cognitive interface linking language and spatial representation. All book chapters are accessible for the interested novice, and offer the specialized researcher new empirical and theoretical insights into defining function, both with respect to the language and space interface and across cognition. The introduction to the book presents the reader with the main issues and viewpoints that are discussed in more detail in each of the book chapters.