Interpreting spatial terms involves simulating interactions

Abstract

Recent research in spatial language has demonstrated that the interpretation of a spatial term depends not only on the geometry of the configuration of the objects being spatially related, but also on extrageometric information, including information about the objects and their interaction. Such effects could emerge from activation of general knowledge of the association between the objects; thus, they should be widely observed. In contrast, they could be more restricted, emerging only in situations in which the spatial language task positions objects in a manner that is consistent with a simulation of their interaction. In two experiments, we test each of these ideas and demonstrate that extrageometric information augments geometric information in the interpretation of spatial terms only when the situation enables the interaction. Copyright 2006 Psychonomic Society, Inc.