When an Image Turns into Knowledge: The Role of Visualization in Thought Experimentation

Abstract

This chapter will suggest that experiments carried out in thought are a valid and powerful tool for the construction of insight into the behavior of the world. Thought experiments (TEs) include five components, the central of which is visualization. We suggest that the bounded yet structured visualization of imaginary worlds, integrated with logical and conceptual derivations from them, provide a powerful cognitive mechanism for `knowing'. We define kinds of visualization in a TE by analyzing well known historical thought experiments in science and students' TEs. We suggest that the structures of these imaginary worlds are based on a kind of `instinctive knowledge' which is frequently tacit.