Spatial Mental Models in Linear Reasoning

There is ample evidence that linear syllogisms are solved by constructing mental models, which semantically represent states in the world (Evans, Newstead, &; Byrne, 1993; Vandierendonck &; De Vooght, 1996 a). Such models are built by combining the information presented in the premises into an integrated representation, which is often thought of as spatial. The present article (a) presents evidence for an integrated spatial representation of premise information and (b) proposes a model construction process based on scanning processes that locate the position where new information is to be integrated into the spatial model.