Human spatial cognition and learning can be greatly influenced by the symbol systems we use to
represent and communicate about space. In particular, spatial language—by far the most ubiquitous of all our external representational systems—can enhance spatial cognition in several ways. Spatial language encodes space in categorical terms and emphasizes qualitative divisions of space rather than metric properties. Spatial language thus can invite qualitative categories that guide spatial reasoning. Spatial language provides tools for labeling spatial relations and focuses attention on patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. Moreover, spatial language can form an abstract system that permits analogical extensions of spatial representations to other domains.
The aims of the Spatial Language working group are:
To explore the effects of spatial language on spatial cognition.
To delineate the cognitive constraints on spatial language.
To understand how spatial language is learned.
To discover how spatial language and spatial relations are represented in the brain.
NEW RELEASE: CogSketch v1.19 (3/10/2010) (download here)
Read our latest updates and incoming news below or for SILC in the press go to our Press Room (click on PRESS ROOM icon above).
3/4/2010 Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Members: Hilary Barth, Sue Becker, Nathan Greenauer, Toru Ishikawa, Shaun P. Vecera, Tom verguts and Christoph Weidemann.
3/1/2010 Our March Showcase is on-line: The Role of Parent Gesture In Children's Spatial Language Development [Erica Cartmill, Shannon M. Pruden Dick, Susan C. Levine, Susan Goldin-Meadow].
2/18/2010 Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Member: Kevin Mulqueeny.
2/12/2010 Job opening for a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, University of Chicago.
2/12/2010 New publication by our SILC Members: Jee, B. D., Uttal, D. H., Gentner, D., Manduca, C., Shipley, T., Sageman, B., Ormand, C. J., & Tikoff, B. (2010). Analogical thinking in geoscience education.
2/10/2010 Note: Full paper submission deadline [in Calls section on Meetings page] for Spatial Cognition 2010 has been changed to: February 21, 2010.
2/9/2010 Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Members: Ed Golob and Kelly McCormick.
2/5/2010 Please, note that we will soon be implementing a database for the Bibliography page. Due to this we are only up-dating the database.
2/5/2010 Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Member: Michael Brown.
2/1/2010 Our February Showcase is on-line: Playful Learning: Exploring the Role of Dialogic Inquiry and Exploration in Children's Developing Shape Concepts [Kelly R. Fisher, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and Nora Newcombe].
1/27/2010 Read the current Press on SILC-generated research: Female teachers' math anxiety affects girls' math achievement by Sian L. Beilock, Elizabeth A. Gunderson, Gerardo Ramirez and Susan C. Levine.
1/7/2010 Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Member: Roy Ruddle.
1/6/2010 The January SILC Showcase is now on-line: Facilitation of spatial skills necessary in performing geologic transformations [Ilyse Resnick, Temple University; Thomas Shipley, Temple University; Cathryn Manduca, Carleton College; and Nora Newcombe, Temple University].
12/21/2009 Links were fixed under the sketch inquiry, Help Us Gather Sketches, on our homepage. Please, note that if you ever encounter a link that does not work, please send it to the attention of Jenn Stedillie, webmaster for this site:
12/21/2009 Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Members: Elena Andonova, Kirsten Butcher, Liz Chrastil, Lisa Douglas & Ian Fogarty.
12/02/2009 The December SILC Showcase is now on-line: Spatial categories across languages [Naveen Khetarpal, University of Chicago; Asifa Majid, Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen; Terry Regier, University of California, Berkeley].
