A role for cognitive maps in metaphors and analogy?
Schedule
Thursday, June 24, 2021
16:00 UTC
Roberto Bottini
Dr
University of Trento
Host: Analogical Minds
Recording
Open recording
Event Information
Recording
Available
Host
Analogical Minds
Duration
90 minutes
Abstract
In human and non-human animals, conceptual knowledge is partially organized according to low-dimensional geometries that rely on brain structures and computations involved in spatial representations. Recently, two separate lines of research have investigated cognitive maps, that are associated with the hippocampal formation and are similar to world-centered representations of the environment, and image spaces, that are associated with the parietal cortex and are similar to self-centered spatial relationships. I will suggest that cognitive maps and image spaces may be two manifestations of a more general propensity of the mind to create low-dimensional internal models, and may play a role in analogical reasoning and metaphorical thinking. Finally, I will show some data suggesting that the metaphorical relationship between colors and emotions can be accounted for by the structural alignment of low-dimensional conceptual spaces.
Topics
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