Physical Imagery: Kinematic Versus Dynamic Models

February 22, 2021 Jeremiah Hendren

Physical Imagery: Kinematic Versus Dynamic Models

Schwartz, Daniel L.
Cognitive Psychology 38, no. 3 (1999): 433-464
https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.1998.0702

People solve spatial problems about shape, position, change of perspective, and navigation. People also solve physical problems about forces, resistances, and how one object causes changes to another. To a large extent, research on physical problem solving has emphasized people’s beliefs and qualitative theories about physical behaviors, and research on spatial problem solving has emphasized people’s analog representations of visual perception. As a consequence, research relevant to analog representation has generally investigated spatial and visual issues but not physical and haptic issues. This seems like an omission. Imagine, for example, running wall-to-wall in a breezy room and then imagine running wall-to-wall in waist deep water. Even though many of the spatial relations are identical, the effect of imagined resistance is introspectively compelling.

Daniel L. Schwartz

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