The question of the interplay between the domain-general and the domain-specific cognitive systems is at the heart of current psychological and neuroscientific research. This general question can be further subdivided into at least two more detailed questions. First, do mental representations that belong to different knowledge domains share similar organizational principles, resulting either from representational overlap or from the existence of higher-level representations shared between specific knowledge domains? Second, how do different domain-specific processes interface with the general systems of memory and attention? In my research, I pursue these two questions by conducting (1) cross-domain priming studies showing that similar organizational principles underlie representations from different abstract-knowledge systems (e.g. mental arithmetic and language syntax), and (2) studies that investigate the nature and properties of the attentional system subserving abstract (numbers and language) and concrete (manipulation affordances) mental operations. In my presentation, I will discuss results from my recent work in these two interrelated areas.

Dr Andriy Myachykov