1,720,999 research outputs found
A Peircean account of concepts: Grounding abstraction in phylogeny through a comparative neuroscientific perspective
No full textThe nature of concepts has always been a hotly debated topic in both philosophy and psychology and, more recently, also in cognitive neuroscience. Different accounts have been proposed of what concepts are. These accounts reflect deeply different conceptions of how the human mind works. In the last decades, two diametrically opposed theories of human cognition have been discussed and empirically investigated: the Computational Theory of Mind, on the one hand (Fodor 1983 The modularity of mind: an essay on faculty psychology; Pylyshyn 1984 Computation and cognition: toward a foundation for cognitive science), and Embodied Cognition (Barsalou 2008 Annu. Rev. Psychol. 59, 617-645. (doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639); Gallese & Lakoff 2005 Cogn. Neuropsychol. 22, 455-479 (doi: 10.1080/02643290442000310); Shapiro 2011 Embodied cognition), on the other hand. The former proposes that concepts are abstract and amodal symbols in the language of thought, while the latter argues for the embodied nature of concepts that are conceived of as grounded in actions and perception. The embodiment of both concrete and abstract concepts has been challenged by many (e.g. Mahon & Caramazza 2008 J. Physiol. 102, 59-70. (doi: 10.1016/j.jphysparis.2008.03.004); Caramazza et al. 2014 Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 37, 1-15. (doi: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-071013-013950)). These challenges will be here taken seriously and addressed from a comparative perspective. We will provide a phylogenetic and neurobiologically inspired account of the embodied nature of both abstract and concrete concepts. We will propose that, although differing in certain respect, they both might have a bodily foundation. Commonalities between abstract and concrete concepts will be explained by recurring to the Peircean notions of icon and abductive inference (CP 2.247). According to Peirce, icons are the kind of signs on which abductive inferences rest (Peirce CS 1931 in Collected papers of Charles S. Peirce, Hartshorne C, Weiss P, Burks AW. (eds), 40; Peirce CS 1997 In The 1903 Harvard lectures on pragmatism (ed. A. Turrisi)). It will be claimed that the mechanism of Embodied Simulation (Gallese & Sinigaglia 2011 Trends Cogn. Sci. 15, 512-519. (doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2011.09.003)) can be described as an icon (Cuccio V & Caruana F. 2015 Il corpo come icona. Abduzione, strumenti ed Embodied Simulation. Versus, n. 119, 93-103), and it will then be suggested that on these, basic natural signs rest, both phylogenetically and ontogenetically, the capacity to conceptualize.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain'
Unstable metaphors, uncertain minds: how metaphors shape judgments and opinions
No full textIntroduction Previous research has shown that experimentally manipulated physical states of instability negatively affect judgments and opinions. Based on this result, in the current study we want to investigate whether the processing of metaphorical expressions related to physical instability (e.g., "Our economy is shaky") and underpinned by the conceptual metaphor EMOTIONAL STABILITY IS BALANCE negatively affects participants' judgments.Methods Three hundred participants were assigned to three experimental groups. Each group was presented with sentences containing, respectively, stable metaphors, unstable metaphors or unstable literal sentences. After reading the sentences, participants were asked to respond to six topical questions regarding current and future economic and life perspectives.Results Data shows that across all six topical questions, reading stable metaphors led to more positive judgments compared to unstable sentences (both metaphors and literal ones). Moreover, in four questions out of six, reading unstable metaphorical sentences led to lower ratings compared to unstable literal sentences.Discussion These findings support the main claim of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, i.e., the idea that abstract and complex concepts are structured via metaphorical mappings from more concrete and simple ones and align with the Embodied Cognition Hypothesis. Furthermore, these findings suggest that metaphors can have a powerful influence on our perception of the world and contribute to our understanding of how metaphorical language can shape bodily experiences and attitudes
From breaking bread to breaking hearts: embodied simulation and action language comprehension
No full textIn this study, we conducted a behavioural experiment using literal, idiomatic, conventional and novel metaphorical action sentences. Participants viewed an action video, immediately after a sentence containing a verb that did (matching modality) or did not (mismatching modality) match the observed action. All the sentences were presented both in the matching modality and the mismatching modality. Participants had to indicate whether the sentence made sense or not by pressing a designated response key. We recorded participants' reaction times and accuracy. We found no significant differences between the matching and mismatching modality in the idiomatic condition. Instead, we found a facilitation effect for the literal and the metaphorical conventional condition in the matching modality compared to the mismatching modality and an interference effect for the metaphorical novel condition in the matching modality compared to the mismatching modality. We interpret these findings in light of the Embodied Cognition approach to language
Metafore che risuonano.Linguaggio e corpo tra filosofia e neuroscienze
No full textObiettivo di questo lavoro è quello di individuare un meccanismo di comprensione delle metafore che possa rendere conto di quella sintonizzazione affettivo/ emotiva tra scrittore e lettore che spesso accompagna la lettura. Per definire questa esperienza, che chiameremo esperienza di “risonanza”, la dimensione sensoriale e quella del piacere possono essere essenziali. Il lavoro sarà condotto facendo ampio uso delle evidenze delle neuroscienze cognitive
The role of embodied cognition in action language comprehension in L1 and L2
No full textIn this study we carried out a behavioral experiment comparing action language comprehension in L1 (Italian) and L2 (English). Participants were Italian native speakers who had acquired the second language late (after the age of 10). They performed semantic judgments on L1 and L2 literal, idiomatic and metaphorical action sentences after viewing a video of a hand performing an action that was related or unrelated to the verb used in the sentence. Results showed that responses to literal and metaphorical L1 sentences were faster when the action depicted was related to the verb used rather than when the action depicted was unrelated to the verb used. No differences were found for the idiomatic condition. In L2 we found that all responses to the three conditions were facilitated when the action depicted was related to the verb used. Moreover, we found that the difference between the unrelated and the related modalities was greater in L2 than in L1 for the literal and the idiomatic condition but not for the metaphorical condition. These findings are consistent with the embodied cognition hypothesis of language comprehension
Rappresentare, referenziare e regolare. Su tre invarianti costitutivi della natura umana
No full textThe paper aims to analyze three distinct but related language operations: representation, referentiation, regulation
- …
