Reviewed by Zhen-qiang Fan, Zhejiang Gongshang University

This edited volume, arising out of an Expert meeting in 2008, founded by the European Science Foundation and the European Social Cognition Network, brings together findings and theories from leading scholars who, with a wide range of academic backgrounds and using diverse methodologies, addresses the issue of the interaction between spatial and social cognition as well as their mutual support and constraint.

 Besides the editors’ introduction previewing the whole volume, the book is organized into two sections (A and B), reflecting the two emphases of the volume. The articles in section A explore the grounding of social processes and concepts in space, and seek explanations from the embodied cognition paradigm in its different versions (especially conceptual metaphor theory (CMT)), whose main claim is that human higher-order cognition is shaped by sensory-motor processes. The chapters in this part confirm, refine, extend, or complement existing theories of embodiment. Barbara Tversky demonstrates the spatial basis of social thought by scrutinizing the parallel constructive processes existing both in space and social thought, and explains these correspondences using perception-action couplings. Julio Santiago, Antonio Román, and Marc Ouellet challenge CMT by raising the problem of flexibility, and propose a new explanatory model based on basic spatial cognition principles, working memory representations, and attentional processes.

 The two chapters that follow challenge the embodiment theorists’ claim that social cognition is based on spatial cognition. Nira Liberman and Jens Förster survey evidence in support of the view that spatial distance and other psychological distances, such as social distance, temporal distance, and likelihood, affect each other and that distances affect and are affected by the level of construal. In the following chapter, Simone Schnall, on the basis of the economy of action theory, argues that social variables affect spatial ones rather than vice versa. Thomas W. Schubert, Sven Waldzus, and Beate Seibt review evidence supporting the assumption that power is metaphorically understood as elevation and size in space. They also draw on semantic network models and simulation theories to complement CMT to explain the findings.

 Also assuming embodiment, section B contains chapters specifically examining the horizontal dimension, i.e. the left-right asymmetries and their affects in various phenomena. These phenomena include the attribution of agency during our conceptualization of action and event (by Anjan Chatterjee); face perception (by Nuala Brady); drawing, object recognition, and aesthetic preference (by Jyotsna Vaid); simple visuospatial tasks (by Sylvie Chokron, Seta Kazandjian, and Maria De Agostini); paintings (by Caterina Suitner and Chris McManus); gender stereotyping (by Caterina Suitner and Anne Maass); and graphs and diagrams (by Peter Hegarty and Anthony Lemieux). The authors in Section B also offer numerous explanatory models by attributing these asymmetries to reading and writing habits, specialization of the brain hemispheres, or motor processes.

 All of the chapters extensively review theories and evidence ranging from cognitive linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and various branches of the social sciences, and some articles present results from the labs of the respective authors. Most chapters raise issues for future research.