Blurb:

The main purpose of this chapter is to lay out evidence suggesting a new solution to this impasse. In particular, it is suggested here that a straightforward ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question of whether language changes spatial thought is too simplistic. Rather, the authors will present a different twist to the issue, suggested by some newer developments in thinking about the interaction between language and spatial cognition. Specifically, the authors review evidence that language – once acquired – can strongly modulate our non-linguistic spatial representations, but that much of this is done in the moment of carrying out a specific task, and does not result in permanent organizational change to spatial representation.