Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought
- ISBN-10
- 0465093078
- ISBN-13
- 9780465093076
- Category
- Psychology
- Pages
- 384
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2019-05-21
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- Author
- Barbara Tversky
Description
An eminent psychologist offers a major new theory of human cognition: movement, not language, is the foundation of thought When we try to think about how we think, we can't help but think of words. Indeed, some have called language the stuff of thought. But pictures are remembered far better than words, and describing faces, scenes, and events defies words. Anytime you take a shortcut or play chess or basketball or rearrange your furniture in your mind, you've done something remarkable: abstract thinking without words. In Mind in Motion, psychologist Barbara Tversky shows that spatial cognition isn't just a peripheral aspect of thought, but its very foundation, enabling us to draw meaning from our bodies and their actions in the world. Our actions in real space get turned into mental actions on thought, often spouting spontaneously from our bodies as gestures. Spatial thinking underlies creating and using maps, assembling furniture, devising football strategies, designing airports, understanding the flow of people, traffic, water, and ideas. Spatial thinking even underlies the structure and meaning of language: why we say we push ideas forward or tear them apart, why we're feeling up or have grown far apart. Like Thinking, Fast and Slow before it, Mind in Motion gives us a new way to think about how--and where--thinking takes place.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 1987
- 222 pages
- Paperback
- Southern Illinois University Press
Similar books
-
Mind and Motion: The Bidirectional Link between Thought and Action: Progress in Brain Research
By Joseph Johnson, Markus Raab, Hauke HeekerenGaze characteristics of elite and near-elite athletes in ice hockey defensive tactics. ... Constraints on the development of coordination. ... Skill level and eye movement patterns in a sport orientated reaction time task.
-
Minds in Motion: A Kinesthetic Approach to Teaching Elementary Curriculum
By Susan GrissKids love to move. They use their bodies to play, communicate, and express emotions. In Minds in Motion, Susan Griss shows teachers how they can channel this kinesthetic language into...
-
Body and Mind in Motion: Dance and Neuroscience in Conversation
By Margaret Wilson, Glenna BatsonThis book fills that gap and brings to light contemporary discoveries of neuroscience and somatic education as they relate to dance.
-
Mind as Motion: Explorations in the Dynamics of Cognition
By Robert F. Port, Timothy Van GelderMind as Motion is the first comprehensive presentation of the dynamical approach to cognition.
-
Mind and Motion and Monism
By George John RomanesMind and Motion and Monism
-
Energy in Motion: How to Unleash Your Mind and Take Action Now
By Alejandra Diaz MercadoAs you read Energy in Motion: How to Unleash Your Mind and Take Action Now, you will rediscover your known reality in a new, humorous and exciting way.
-
Mind in Motion
By Katherine H. GranvilleMIND IN MOTION is the third in a series of three books designed to create through dialogue, a more responsive environment for the ever-emerging individual intelligence. This is a non-fiction...
-
Zen in Motion: Lessons from a Master Archer on Breath, Posture, and the Path of Intuition
By Neil ClaremonThe author reveals the details of his initiation into the mysteries of Zen archery, discussing the Zen path of awareness and how to improve posture, breathing, and concentration
-
Cognitive Search: Evolution, Algorithms, and the Brain
By Peter M. Todd, Trevor W. Robbins, Thomas T. HillsWhat we find is always governed by how we search and by the structure of the environment. This book explores how we search for resources in our minds and in the world.
-
The Book of Motion: Poems
By Tung-Hui HuThis debut collection explores memory, cities, motion.