A computational theory for the model construction, inspection and variation phase in human spatial reasoning

Abstract

Our long-term research goal is the development of a cognitive theory for adequately modeling human reasoning tasks. The theory should be computational and on the other hand comprehensive. The Weak Completion Semantics (WCS) seems to be a good candidate, as it has previously shown to adequately model a wide range of human reasoning tasks. By means of human spatial reasoning, we show here that the WCS can fully cover all three stages of reasoning that have been suggested by the preferred mental model theory. The contribution comprises aspects within the area of Computer Science and Psychology. Through the formal process of modeling, in particular through the computation of alternative models within the variation phase, we have gained new insights and put forward assumptions that need to be verified