 Lakoff hypothesises that principles of abstract reasoning may have evolved from visual thinking and mechanisms for representing spatial relations that are present in lower animals.Conceptualisation is regarded as being based on the "embodiment" of knowledge, building on physical experience of vision and motion.For example, the 'metaphor' of emotion builds on downward motion while the metaphor of reason builds on upward motion, as in saying “The discussion "fell" to the emotional level, but I "raised it back up" to the rational plane."