If the perceptual system represents relative position and distance as prior outputs from which global spatial structure is inferred, then spatial relations are psychologically and representationally prior to embedding space.

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(as used in philosophy of mind and cognitive science)

The parts of your brain and senses that take in information from the world around you and make sense of it.

prior outputs(as used in cognitive science)

Information that comes first or earlier in a process—here, the initial data your brain produces before doing further thinking with it.

psychologically prior(as used in philosophy of mind)

Comes first or is more basic in how the mind actually works, rather than in objective reality.

relative position and distance(as used in spatial cognition)

How far objects are from each other and where they sit compared to one another (like 'the cup is to the left of the plate').

representationally prior(as used in philosophy of mind)

Comes first or is more fundamental in the way the mind encodes and stores information about things.

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