The construction of spatial mental models—A new view on the continuity effect

Abstract

Many studies show that spatial reasoning with information that describe relations between two or more objects relies on the construction and inspection of mental models. This article mainly focuses on the phenomenon that humans have more difficulties in processing spatial information that is not directly related to each other—for example, presented discontinuously—what is also known as the continuity effect. The article investigates how humans integrate such information into one unified mental model. In four experiments, we investigated the question whether (a) reasoners construct more than one (preliminary) model, with the first two premises presented in a discontinuous description, and integrate the models afterwards, or alternatively (b) construct one preliminary model that is later modified in the light of the last parts of problem description. The results support the second assumption and offer a new view on the continuity effect and the fundamental principles of model construction and variation in human spatial reasoning.

Keywords:

• Spatial mental models
• Spatial cognition
• Spatial reasoning
• Premise order
• Continuity effect

We thank Anja Gatzsche, Isabell Tapia-Leon, Lilly Fehr, and Sören Studer for assistance with running the experiments and Graeme Halford and James Danckert for many helpful suggestions for improving the revision of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [grant number KN 465/6-1], [grant number KN 465/6-2] to Markus Knauff and Bernhard Nebel, and within the Priority Program “New Frameworks of Rationality (SPP1516).