157 | Spatial Thinking with Barbara Tversky

Data Stories

We have Barbara Tversky with us to talk about “spatial cognition”; the way humans perceive space and how space perception is related to the many ways we think. Barbara is a renowned cognitive scientist and a Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University. She has an extensive literature on spatial cognition and specific research on how people perceive and use diagrams, maps and other visual representations.

On the show we talk about her new book called “Mind in Motions” in which Barbara describes her research and the many fascinating ways space and motion play a pivotal role in the way we think. We also talk about the role of space in data visualization and the many fascinating ways in which spatial cognition can inform visualization design.

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Enjoy the show!

Check out Barbara’s book “Mind in Motion“.

https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/157-barbara-tversky.mp4

Chapters

1. Welcome to Data Stories! (00:00:23)

2. Our podcast is listener-supported, please consider making a donation! (00:01:08)

https://www.patreon.com/datastories

3. Our guest today: Barbara Tversky, cognitive psychologist (00:01:29)

https://profiles.stanford.edu/barbara-tversky

4. Spatial thinking and the laws of cognition (00:04:13)

https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/barbara-tversky/mind-in-motion/9780465093076/

5. Emotions, interpretations and the notion of accuracy in visualisation (00:15:05)

6. How does thought flow back into the world, Or: Is visualisation about tidying up? (00:27:06)

7. Spatial aspects and metaphors in data visualisation (00:34:41)

8. Get in touch with us and support us on Patreon (00:55:49)

https://www.patreon.com/datastories