There is a book Logical Foundations of Cognition edited by John MacNamara and Gonzalo Reyes (OUP, 1994). This contains a chapter "Category Theory as a Conceptual Tool in the Study of Cognition" by François Magnan and Reyes. If I remember correctly, the chapter introduces category theory to cognitive scientists, and does so by emphasising the intuitions behind constructs, avoiding formal notation. I believe the chapter explained left and right adjoints, possibly by using diagrams of Galois connections in which 2-d shapes were mapped (for example) to the smallest subset of a grid that would enclose them. I'd be grateful if anyone who has read this could remind me what the examples were, and what is said about adjoints and adjunctions.
This is for a paper on category theory and semiotics, wherein I need to explain some ideas to artists and other non-mathematicians. I don't have access to the library where I once read the book, and as it's around £50, am reluctant to buy it for just one paper. I can't find an open-access copy of book or chapter, and although I've contacted Reyes and his university, haven't had a reply. The other editor, MacNamara, died in 1996. I've also not been able to unambiguously identify Magnan.
Once upon a time, the entire chapter could be viewed in Google Books. But no longer.
There are two examples of adjoints. The first takes place on a rectangular grid. The functor on figures $F \mapsto \cup \text{\{all squares intersecting F\}} $ is left adjoint to $F \mapsto \cup\text{\{all squares inside F\}}$. The first is interpreted as "squares possibly in $F$", whereas the second is "squares necessarily contained in $F$".
The second example is $((A,B)\mapsto A+B) \dashv (X \mapsto (X,X)) \dashv ((A,B)\mapsto A \times B).$
Then the standard definition of adjunction is given via bijection of hom-sets.