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Abstract. Similarity measurement theories play an increasing role in GIScience and especially in information retrieval and integration. Existing feature and geometric models have proven useful in detecting close but not identical concepts and entities. However, until now none of these theories are able to handle the expressivity of description logics for various reasons and therefore are not applicable to the kind of ontologies usually developed for geographic information systems or the upcoming geospatial semantic web. To close the resulting gap between available similarity theories on the one side and existing ontologies on the other, this paper presents ongoing work to develop a context-aware similarity theory for concepts specified in expressive description logics such as ALCNR. 1

Findings in the social psychology literatures on attitudes, social perception, and emotion demonstrate that social information processing involves embodiment, where embodiment refers both to actual bodily states and to simulations of experience in the brain’s modality-specific systems for perception, action, and introspection. We show that embodiment underlies social information processing when the perceiver interacts with actual social objects (online cognition) and when the perceiver represents social objects in their absence (offline cognition). Although many empirical demonstrations of social embodiment exist, no particularly compelling account of them has been offered. We propose that theories of embodied cognition, such as the Perceptual Symbol Systems (PSS) account (Barsalou, 1999), explain and integrate these findings, and that they also suggest exciting new directions for research. We compare the PSS account to a variety of related proposals and show how it addresses criticisms that have previously posed problems for the general embodiment approach. Consider the following findings. Wells and Petty (1980) reported that nodding the head (as in agreement)

1.1. Conceptual systems 621 1.2. Semantic memory 621

Abstract. Determining the grade of semantic similarity between geospatial concepts is the basis for evaluating semantic interoperability of geographic information services and their users. Geometrical models, such as conceptual spaces, offer one way of representing geospatial concepts, which are modelled as n-dimensional regions. Previous approaches have suggested to measure semantic similarity between concepts based on their approximation by single points. This paper presents a way to measure semantic similarity between conceptual regions—leading to more accurate results. In addition, it allows for asymmetries by measuring directed similarities. Examples from the geospatial domain illustrate the similarity measure and demonstrate its plausibility. 1

If people represent concepts with perceptual simulations, two predictions follow in the property verification task (e.g., Is face a property of GORILLA?). First, perceptual variables such as property size should predict the performance of neutral subjects, because these variables determine the ease of processing properties in perceptual simulations (i.e., perceptual effort). Second, uninstructed neutral subjects should spontaneously construct simulations to verify properties and therefore perform similarly to imagery subjects asked explicitly to use images (i.e., instructional equivalence). As predicted, neutral subjects exhibited both perceptual effort and instructional equivalence, consistent with the assumption that they construct perceptual simulations spontaneously to verify properties. Notably, however, this pattern occurred only when highly associated false properties prevented the use of a word association strategy. In other conditions that used unassociated false properties, the associative strength between concept and property words became a diagnostic cue for true versus false responses, so that associative strength became a better predictor of verification than simulation. This pattern indicates that conceptual tasks engender mixtures of simulation and word association, and that researchers must deter word association strategies when the goal is to assess conceptual knowledge. Researchers increasingly report that modality-specific

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Computer games are being approached from a wide range of perspectives, but the activity of playing games, with the player and her actions in focus has, so far, not received much attention in academic research. Approaching games from a cognitive science perspective, however, it is argued in this paper that theories on embodied and situated cognition provide a strong basis for research on this particular issue since game play is a socially embodied and situated activity, shaped by the player’s bodily experience and her interactions with the game environment.

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