IMAGE SCHEMAS

...dynamic analog representations of spatial relations and movements in space...

- Jean M. Mandler

With several different definitions and perspectives, simply put image schemas are mental abstractions that functions as conceptual building blocks for thought.

They are learned in early infancy as children experience their environment and extract reoccuring patterns from the spatiotemporal relationships between objects, agents and spaces.

They can be found in natural language expressions, in abstract and metaphoric reasoning and has become increasingly important for commonsense reasoning of artificial agents.