Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

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MENTAL MODEL · M10282

Metaphor

Metaphor
Learn & MetacognitionHigh supportCognitive Science
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

Mapping concepts from one domain to another to understand abstract things. For example: "Time is money" "Argument is war". Scaffolding role: cognitive bridge. Metaphors shape thinking, both facilitating understanding and potentially causing cognitive blind spots (aspects hidden by the metaphor).

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

Cognitive bridge. Metaphors shape thinking, both facilitating understanding and potentially causing cognitive blind spots (aspects hidden by the metaphor).

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

A metaphor systematically maps a familiar domain onto an abstract domain to aid understanding (conceptual metaphor theory). The mechanism is cross-domain structural mapping: relationships from the source domain are projected onto the target domain.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaphorZH · Explicit
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