What can size tell us about abstract conceptual processing?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Yao ◽  
Jack Edward Taylor ◽  
Sara C Sereno
Keyword(s):  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Physical Size ◽  
Conceptual Processing ◽  
Task Effects ◽  
Mental Worlds ◽  
Size Congruency

Embodied cognition theories propose that abstract concepts can be embodied via metaphorical extensions from experiences of the physical or the mental worlds. In three experiments, we explored how semantic size (e.g., the magnitude, dimension or extent of an object or a concept) of abstract concepts is mentally represented. We show that abstract size is metaphorically associated with the physical size of concrete objects (Experiment 1) and can produce a semantic-font size congruency effect comparable to that demonstrated in concrete words during online lexical processing (Experiment 2). Critically, this size congruency effect is large when a word is judged by its size but significantly smaller when it is judged by its emotionality (Experiment 3). Our results suggest that semantic size of abstract concepts can be represented in physical size and that such experiences are variably engaged under different task demands. The present findings advocate flexible embodiment of semantic representations, with an emphasis on the role of task effects on conceptual processing.

scholarly journals Abstract Concepts in Grounded Cognition

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Lakens
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Grounded Cognition ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Auditory Space ◽  
Conceptual Processing ◽  
Conceptual Thought ◽  
Cognitive Revolution ◽  
Perceptual Characteristics

In the present dissertation, I examine the role of sensory information for abstract conceptual thought. In Chapter 1, the central assumptions in grounded approaches to cognition are introduced and contrasted with more traditional views on the representation of concepts expressed by cognitive researchers since the cognitive revolution in psychology. The three empirical chapters of this thesis focus on how morality, time, and valence are grounded in perceptual symmetry, left-right auditory space, and brightness, respectively. Together, these chapters show that perceptual information influences abstract conceptual processing, even for highly abstract concepts that lack perceptual characteristics.

Perceptual Effects and Recollective Experience in Face Recognition

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 224-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chrisanthi Nega
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Facial Recognition ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Study Time ◽  
Perceptual Fluency ◽  
Recollective Experience ◽  
Trace Strength ◽  
Size Congruency

Abstract. Four experiments were conducted investigating the effect of size congruency on facial recognition memory, measured by remember, know and guess responses. Different study times were employed, that is extremely short (300 and 700 ms), short (1,000 ms), and long times (5,000 ms). With the short study time (1,000 ms) size congruency occurred in knowing. With the long study time the effect of size congruency occurred in remembering. These results support the distinctiveness/fluency account of remembering and knowing as well as the memory systems account, since the size congruency effect that occurred in knowing under conditions that facilitated perceptual fluency also occurred independently in remembering under conditions that facilitated elaborative encoding. They do not support the idea that remember and know responses reflect differences in trace strength.

The representation of abstract concepts: The role of affect

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Vigliocco ◽  
David P. Vinson ◽  
Pasquale Della Rosa ◽  
Stefano F. Cappa ◽  
Joseph T. Devlin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Abstract Concepts

scholarly journals The role of the superior parietal lobule in lexical processing of sign language: Insights from fMRI and TMS

Cortex ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 240-254
Author(s):  
A. Banaszkiewicz ◽  
Ł. Bola ◽  
J. Matuszewski ◽  
M. Szczepanik ◽  
B. Kossowski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Superior Parietal Lobule ◽  
Parietal Lobule

scholarly journals Rapid learning of minimally different words in five- to six-year-old children: effects of acoustic salience and hearing impairment

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCEL R. GIEZEN ◽  
PAOLA ESCUDERO ◽  
ANNE E. BAKER
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implant ◽  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Object Matching ◽  
Rapid Learning ◽  
Minimal Pairs

AbstractThis study investigates the role of acoustic salience and hearing impairment in learning phonologically minimal pairs. Picture-matching and object-matching tasks were used to investigate the learning of consonant and vowel minimal pairs in five- to six-year-old deaf children with a cochlear implant (CI), and children of the same age with normal hearing (NH). In both tasks, the CI children showed clear difficulties with learning minimal pairs. The NH children also showed some difficulties, however, particularly in the picture-matching task. Vowel minimal pairs were learned more successfully than consonant minimal pairs, particularly in the object-matching task. These results suggest that the ability to encode phonetic detail in novel words is not fully developed at age six and is affected by task demands and acoustic salience. CI children experience persistent difficulties with accurately mapping sound contrasts to novel meanings, but seem to benefit from the relative acoustic salience of vowel sounds.

Lateralization of lexical processing in monolinguals and bilinguals

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110188
Author(s):  
Filiz Mergen ◽  
Gulmira Kuruoglu
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Visual Fields ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Visual Hemifield ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Brain Correlates ◽  
Orthographic Neighbors

Aims and objectives: This study aims to investigate how lexical processing (LP) is organized in early Turkish–English bilinguals and Turkish monolinguals. Methodology: We used a visual hemifield paradigm where bilingual ( n = 48) and monolingual ( n = 53) participants performed a lexical decision task. Bilingual participants performed the task in both their languages. Data and analysis: We recorded response times (RTs) and the accuracy rates (ARs) of the participants. An analysis of variance and t-test were run to analyze the bilingual and monolingual data, respectively. Findings: The results obtained from the analysis of the RTs and ARs for the Turkish and English words showed a balanced hemispheric organization in LP in bilingual speakers. The RTs for Turkish words in the monolingual group provided supportive evidence for the predominant role of the left hemisphere in LP. However, no significant difference was found in the accuracy of their answers, suggesting that the monolingual participants’ performance was not influenced by visual field of presentation of the words. Finally, the comparison of the two groups revealed that bilingual participants’ performance was inferior to monolinguals’ in speed and accuracy of processing of words presented in both visual fields. This result gives further support for the differential representation of LP in monolinguals and bilinguals. Originality: The psycholinguistic literature abounds with studies of LP in bilinguals and monolinguals from a variety of language backgrounds; however, there is much less data regarding the brain correlates of LP in Turkish–English bilinguals and Turkish monolinguals. Implications: Since Turkish–English bilinguals and Turkish monolinguals are underrepresented in the literature as compared to the population who speak other languages with alphabetic writing, this study provides preliminary data for future studies. Limitations: We did not control for gender or lexical factors such as orthographic neighbors when designing the word sets used as stimuli.

The Effect of Attention on Repetition Suppression and Multivoxel Pattern Similarity

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1305-1314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine S. Moore ◽  
Do-Joon Yi ◽  
Marvin Chun
Keyword(s):  
Task Demands ◽  
Initial Presentation ◽  
Fmri Signal ◽  
Repetition Suppression ◽  
Specific Memory ◽  
Pattern Similarity ◽  
Parahippocampal Place Area ◽  
And Task

Fundamental to our understanding of learning is the role of attention. We investigated how attention affects two fMRI measures of stimulus-specific memory: repetition suppression (RS) and pattern similarity (PS). RS refers to the decreased fMRI signal when a stimulus is repeated, and it is sensitive to manipulations of attention and task demands. In PS, region-wide voxel-level patterns of responses are evaluated for their similarity across repeated presentations of a stimulus. More similarity across presentations is related to better learning, but the role of attention on PS is not known. Here, we directly compared these measures during the visual repetition of scenes while manipulating attention. Consistent with previous findings, we observed RS in the scene-sensitive parahippocampal place area only when a scene was attended both at initial presentation and upon repetition in subsequent trials, indicating that attention is important for RS. Likewise, we observed greater PS in response to repeated pairs of scenes when both instances of the scene were attended than when either or both were ignored. However, RS and PS did not correlate on either a scene-by-scene or subject-by-subject basis, and PS measures revealed above-chance similarity even when stimuli were ignored. Thus, attention has different effects on RS and PS measures of perceptual repetition.

Human Systems Integration (HSI) in Navy Ship Manpower Reduction

1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (19) ◽  
pp. 977-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Robert Bost ◽  
Thomas B. Malone ◽  
Clifford C. Baker ◽  
Charles D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Reduction Techniques ◽  
Front End ◽  
Human Systems Integration ◽  
Design Requirements ◽  
Workload Reduction ◽  
Specific Operator

The HSI approach to ship and ship system design for manning reduction is based on the standard human factors front-end analysis to identify functions and requirements, allocate functions to determine the role of the human vs. automation, identify approaches to reduce workload, and conduct task network workload simulation to establish the effectiveness of selected workload reduction techniques. The classes of workload reduction are focused on design requirements associated with automation of functions, consolidation of functions, simplification of function performance, and elimination of functions. Function Automation addresses the automation of functions previously performed manually and the determination of the roles of the human in automated or semi-automated functions. Function Consolidation requires a reassignment of functions among available operators to more evenly redistribute required workload. Function simplification requires that, for high driver functions and tasks assigned to a specific operator or maintainer, the demands that these functions and tasks make must be reduced to the greatest extent possible. Function/task demands include physical, cognitive, and perceptual-motor demands. Function Elimination involves removing a function from the ship through tele-operations or tele-maintenance with shoreside equipment tech-reps or maintenance experts, and reliance on collaboration tools to support dispersed team problem solving, or elimination of a function altogether.

scholarly journals Are Tims hot and Toms not?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Hartung
Keyword(s):  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Front Vowel ◽  
Functional Feature ◽  
Physical Size ◽  
Gender Group ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Back Vowel ◽  
The Relationship

Sound symbolism – the idea that there are motivated links between the sound of a word and its meaning has been established to be an existing phenomenon across different languages. Especially size sound symbolism seems to be a functional feature in many languages meaning that different types of vowels in words are associated with different physical size. Words with front vowels (e.g. little, tiny) are more likely to be used to indicate small physical size whereas words with back vowels (e.g. humungous, huge) are more likely to indicate large physical size. Because physical size plays an important role in ratings of attractiveness, we tested whether vowels in first names can influence how attractive the bearer of the name is perceived. In our experiment, participants saw faces paired with popular first names and rated the attractiveness of the depicted person. Masculine names were paired with pictures of men and feminine names with pictures of women. The names either contained a front or back vowel in the accented syllable and were within gender group randomly paired with pictures. We found that female raters preferred faces paired with back vowel names while male raters preferred faces paired with front vowel names, showing that the rater's gender – far more than the gender of the depicted person – determined the relationship between vowel quality and perceived attractiveness of faces. Our results confirm the role of sound symbolism in perception of attractiveness.

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