In defense of language‐independent flexibility, or: What rodents and humans can do without language

Abstract

There are two main approaches within classical cognitive science to explaining how humans can entertain mental states that integrate contents across domains. The language‐based framework states that this ability arises from higher cognitive domain‐specific systems that combine their outputs through the language faculty, whereas the language‐independent framework holds that it comes from non‐language‐involving connections between such systems. This article turns on its head the most influential empirical argument for the language‐based framework, an argument that originates from research on spatial reorientation. I make the case that neuroscientific findings about spatial reorientation in rodents and humans bolster the language‐independent framework instead.