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Updated: May 31, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
Logic, language and the brain
Martin M Monti1, Daniel N Osherson
1Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, USA. monti@psych.ucla.edu
Abstract:
What is the role of language in human cognition? Within the domain of deductive reasoning, the issue has been the focus of numerous investigations without the emergence of a consensus view. Here we consider some of the reasons why neuroimaging studies of deductive reasoning have generated mixed results. We then review recent evidence suggesting that the role of language in deductive reasoning is confined to an initial stage in which verbally presented information is encoded as non-verbal representations. These representations are then manipulated by mental operations that are not based on the neural mechanisms of natural language. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "The Cognitive Neuroscience".
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