Intuition as mental image processing: Some psycholinguistic considerations on intuitive sensory data structuring and processing based on mental image directed semantic theory

Abstract

This paper considers human intuition in association with mental images and proposes a functional model of human intuition where it is defined as a set of procedural functions specialized for facilitating cognition of significant matters in perception of external stimuli, for example, instinctive detection of dangerously keen objects. Here is proposed a multilayered model of human cognition of the external world. The model consists of three main processing components, namely, Perception, Intuition and Reason. At the first layer, Perception produces vague and unarticulated images (i.e., perceptive images) from external stimuli. At the second layer, Intuition translates perceptive images into articulated ones (i.e., intuitive images) with direct knowledge but any mediate knowledge yielded by reasoning. Finally, Reason calibrates intuitive images into rational images, so called, by inference employing various kinds of knowledge.