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Language as a mental travel guide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Charles P. Davis Open the ORCID record for Charles P. Davis [Opens in a new window] ,
Gerry T. M. Altmann  and
Eiling Yee
Charles P. Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269charles.davis@uconn.edu gerry.altmann@uconn.edu eiling.yee@uconn.edu http://charlespdavis.com http://altmann.lab.uconn.edu http://yeelab.uconn.edu Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269
Gerry T. M. Altmann
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269charles.davis@uconn.edu gerry.altmann@uconn.edu eiling.yee@uconn.edu http://charlespdavis.com http://altmann.lab.uconn.edu http://yeelab.uconn.edu Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269
Eiling Yee
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269charles.davis@uconn.edu gerry.altmann@uconn.edu eiling.yee@uconn.edu http://charlespdavis.com http://altmann.lab.uconn.edu http://yeelab.uconn.edu Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269
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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.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 43 , 2020 , e125
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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