A model of mental representations is developed and shown to provide a framework for interpreting research. The content of awareness is characterized as a model of the world capable of simulating future events, anticipating present events, and thereby formulating appropriate actions. Properties of awareness and of underlying processes are…

Examines cognitive maps on research topics generated by experts and non-experts. Both experts and non-experts modified the given vocabulary by either adding or dropping terms. The dominant configuration for the maps was top-down. Experts tended to use a problem-oriented approach to organize vocabulary while non-experts often applied a…

The authors outline a cognitive and computational account of causal learning in children. They propose that children use specialized cognitive systems that allow them to recover an accurate "causal map" of the world: an abstract, coherent, learned representation of the causal relations among events. This kind of knowledge can be perspicuously…

Surface and relational similarity were examined in two experiments involving isomorphic and nonisomorphic analogical transfer, using direct-mapping and cross-mapping conditions. In the first experiment, third and sixth graders exhibited mapping based on relational similarity more frequently than did kindergartners; in the second, most four- to…

Reviews research on how people use mental models of images in information retrieval. Discusses cognitive and social processes that give rise the visual models shaped by indexers and searchers. Examines the representation of objects and shapes in visual mental models and how both content-based and concept-based indexes capture aspects of these…

Early studies of intuitive judgment and decision making conducted with the late Amos Tversky are reviewed in the context of two related concepts: an analysis of accessibility, the ease with which thoughts come to mind; a distinction between effortless intuition and deliberate reasoning. Intuitive thoughts, like percepts, are highly accessible.…

Age-related differences (9- to 15-year-olds) in the neural correlates of mapping from phonology to orthography were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were asked to determine if two spoken words had the same spelling for the rime (corresponding letters after the first consonant or consonant cluster). Some of…

Every map depicts both objective realities and subjective elements and is a rich resource for studying the geographic knowledge and values of mapmakers and their societies. This paper considers cognitive mapping research and describes how world maps reflect world images. Cognitive mapping is defined as a process that allows people to acquire,…

Reports on two studies on the dynamic relationships among parts of a thought system. The first study examines the effects of changes in the desirability or likelihood of a core event on thoughts about antecedents and consequences; the second examines the effects of changes in the antecedents and consequences on the core thought. (FMW)

Ten sighted adults were blindfolded and asked to find four objects in the open space of a room. A perimeter pattern, a gridlike search pattern, and a reference-point strategy were variably effective, indicating that different kinds of experience may result in different kinds of knowledge that are optimal for different spatial judgment tasks.…

Presents the case for a mapping theory of developmental language impairment, which branches into a theory that specific language impairment arises from impaired phonological processing and the consequent disruption of the mapping process through which the words and sentence structure of language are established. (Author/VWL)

Wernicke (1900, as cited in G. H. Eggert, 1977) suggested that semantic knowledge arises from the interaction of perceptual representations of objects and words. The authors present a parallel distributed processing implementation of this theory, in which semantic representations emerge from mechanisms that acquire the mappings between visual…

Bottleneck models of psychological refractory period (PRP) tasks suggest that a Task 1 response should be unaffected by the Task 2 response in the same trial, because selection of the former finishes before selection of the latter begins. Contrary to this conception, the authors found backward response-level crosstalk effects in which Task 2…

Cognitive development is driven by experience, but is mediated by domain general processes, which include learning, induction, and analogy. The concepts children understand, and the strategies they develop based on that understanding, depend on the complexity of the representation they can construct. Conceptual complexity can be defined in terms…

Three experiments involving 102 college students examined the impact of knowledge map configuration on acquisition of information. Variations in spatial configuration, map format, and link structure affected encoding and retrieval of information. These effects were mediated by the users' spatial and verbal abilities. (SLD)