The cognitive theory of conceptual blending models human creativity as a mental process that combines two mental spaces into a new mental space, called a blend. According to this theory, a blend is constructed by taking the commonalities among the input mental spaces into account, to form a so-called generic space, and by projecting their non-common structure in a selective way to the novel ble...

Dr Inventor is a tool that aims to enhance the professional (Pro-c) creativity of researchers by suggesting novel hypotheses, arising from analogies between publications. Dr Inventor processes original research documents using a combination of lexical analysis and cognitive computation to identify novel comparisons that suggest new research hypotheses, with the objective of supporting a novel r...

In this paper, the connection between metaphor, metonymy, blending and humour is discussed against an analysis of puns in print advertisements featuring both visual and verbal elements. The analysis is based on the theory of conceptual blending (Fauconnier and Turner 1994, 1996 etc.) and on analyses of humour within that framework made by Coulson (1996, 2001, in press), but it also draws on obs...

This paper explores the role of Blending Theory, as a framework, to aid in design decisions while deploying mobile experiences for heritage storytelling. Blending Theory provides a structured way of thinking about how digital and physical spaces can be brought together to create new experiences in blended spaces. In this paper we describe the development of an app that aims to enhance the visit...

Reasoning processes require stable representations of constraints. There are two principal ways to achieve stability in conceptual models. First, the conceptual models that anthropologists call cultural models achieve representational stability via a combination of intrapersonal and interpersonal processes. Second, the association of conceptual structure with material structure can stabilize co...

How does learning to categorize objects affect how people visually perceive them? Behavioral, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging studies have tested the degree to which category learning influences object representations, with conflicting results. Some studies have found that objects become more visually discriminable along dimensions relevant to previously learned categories, while others ha...

Conceptual blending is a mental process that serves a variety cognitive purposes, including human creativity. In this line of thinking, human creativity is modeled as a process that takes different mental spaces as input and combines them into a new mental space, called a blend. According to this form of combinational creativity, a blend is constructed by taking the commonalities among the inpu...

To support the generation of database schemas of information systems, a five-step design process is proposed that explores the notions of generic and blended spaces and favours the reuse of predefined schemas. The use of generic and blended spaces is essential to achieve the passage from the source space into the target space in such a way that differences and conflicts can be detected and, whe...

We discuss issues relating to presence arising from the recent evolution of tangible interaction techniques as an alternative interaction paradigm to the familiar WIMP-based Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The intersection of sensory, cognitive and also emotional aspects in such interfaces takes us a significant step further than GUI techniques. We introduce our concept of Tangible Presence i...

This article aims to redefine the concept of Thirdspace and make a trilateral relationship between the three concepts of real space, virtual space and the user. To do so, not only the concept of Thirdspace has to be redefined, but also a new understanding of virtual space as a relatively independent space is required. This three-sided relation requires a new understanding of the relationship be...