The Effects of Action and Knowledge on Spatial Inference

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Daniel Schwartz will conduct three years of research. The funded project will examine how people integrate action and thought, particularly around the use of complex tools. The ability to use multipart tools and imagine their consequences is a uniquely human ability. For example, suppose you close your eyes and pull a string from a spool that, you believe, turns a miniature merry-go-round resting on top. As a consequence, you may also better imagine the movement of objects placed on the merry-go-round, like the benches or horses. Action facilitates imagination. The spool example suggests two central claims: (1) timing of bodily action facilitates spatial imagination about the consequences of tool use; and, (2) knowledge of a physical situation controls how timing influences a spatial inference. In the research, participants must picture themselves in a different location to judge the position of two objects with respect to each other. This judgment is facilitated by rotating a map by hand (with eyes closed). The proposed studies include various devices for turning the map at different rates: People may tap a lever that turns the map a few or many degrees at a time; they may turn a steering wheel clockwise, to make the map rotate counter-clockwise; or, they may turn an imaginary map in their hands, as though they were holding a map, although they know that they are not. The studies will clarify the significance of timing in action and the knowledge and beliefs that couple action and inferences about changing spatial relations. Most aspects of life include tool use. To understand how tool use and imagination are intertwined is to understand a fundamental aspect of human ability. Because it speaks directly to imagination, this work will supply a partial explanation of invention-how we may imagine the potential of novel tools. It also speaks to the learning, use, and transfer of knowledge about complex physical tools. Likewise the imaginative component speaks to development and application of virtual environments in which bodily motions are not actually physically connected to outcomes. Another application of this work would be for training in the use of tools, as in medical practice, for example, where a tool is not directly in view, as in orthoscopic surgery. But, perhaps, the most interesting implication of this work is how the use of hands-on materials may teach abstract ideas to children.