Abstract
In physics, the analysis of the space representing states of physical systems often takes the form of a layer-cake of increasingly rich structure. In this paper, we propose an analogous hierarchy in the cognition of spacetime. Firstly, we explore the interplay between the objective physical properties of space-time and the subjective compositional modes of relational representations within the reasoner. Secondly, we discuss the compositional structure within and between layers. The existing evidence in the available literature is reviewed to end with some testable consequences of our proposal at the brain and behavioral level.
Highlights
This article posits a hierarchy in the cognition of spacetime, analogous to a “layer cake” structure, where layers correspond to different aspects of causality
The foundations of the layer-cake structure are derived from physical accounts of causality, supported by a brief mathematical background
In Biederman and Cooper (1991) and Biederman and Cooper (1992) study, participants were presented with contour-deleted pictures, they completed perceptual stimuli in the absence of size, location, or orientation information, highlighting humans’ ability to recognize objects independent of Euclidian spatial features in a more abstract fashion. While these results suggest a potential primacy of topology over more complex data, research establishing cognitive mechanisms involved in conceptualization of topological and metric properties provides consistent evidence that people cannot act within, or orient themselves to their environments unless provided spatial and temporal information constituting their physical reality (Han et al, 1999; Müsseler, 1999; Chen, 2005)
Summary
This article posits a hierarchy in the cognition of spacetime, analogous to a “layer cake” structure, where layers correspond to different aspects of causality. The proposed hierarchy acknowledges that neither space nor time can be accessed directly; we can only glean their structures by observing and interacting with objects among events. A more complex, computationally dense and higher up layer might construct metric spaces and Euclidean structure. In psychology, research lags in providing a concise and systematic review for the correspondences between empirical causal structures and spatial-temporal cognition. The layer-cake organization of spatial-temporal structures are preserved among other fields, such as physics, mathematics and computer science, leading to a natural hierarchical organization from topological space (less complex), to metric spaces (more complex). We explore this toy model in the context of physical causal structures (section 2), provide psychological models (section 3) and continue with a discussion of its implications in a wider context (section 4)
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