scholarly journals Abstract concepts and the suppression of arbitrary episodic context

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles P. Davis ◽  
Pedro M. Paz-Alonso ◽  
Gerry Altmann ◽  
Eiling Yee
Keyword(s):  
Source Memory ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Voices ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Concrete Words

Context is important for abstract concept processing, but a mechanism by which it is encoded and re-instantiated with concepts is unclear. We used a source-memory paradigm to determine whether episodic context is attended more when processing abstract concepts. Experiment 1 presented abstract and concrete words in colored boxes at encoding. At test, memory for the frame color was worse for abstract concepts, counter to our predictions. Experiment 2 showed the same pattern when colored boxes were replaced with male and female voices. Experiment 3 presented words from encoding in the same or different box color to determine whether a greater advantage is conferred by context retention in memory for abstract concepts. There was instead a disadvantage: abstract concepts were less likely to be identified when the encoding color was retained at test. Concrete concepts are more sensitive to simple episodic detail, and in abstract concepts, arbitrary context may be suppressed.

Effects of Context on Processing Emotionally Neutral Abstract and Concrete Concepts

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (7) ◽  
pp. 1191-1200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liusheng Wang ◽  
Hongmei Qiu ◽  
Jianjun Yin
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Context Condition ◽  
Word Context ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Concrete Words

The abstractness effect describes the phenomenon of individuals processing abstract concepts faster and more accurately than they process concrete concepts. In this study, we explored the effects of context on how 43 college students processed words, controlling for the emotional valence of the words. The participants performed a lexical decision task in which they were shown individual abstract and concrete words, or abstract and concrete words embedded in sentences. The results showed that in the word-context condition the participants' processing of concrete concepts improved, whereas in the sentence-context condition their processing of abstract concepts improved. These findings support the embodied cognition theory of concept processing.

scholarly journals Exploring Geometric Feature Hyper-Space in Data to Learn Representations of Abstract Concepts

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Sharma ◽  
Bernardete Ribeiro ◽  
Alexandre Miguel Pinto ◽  
F. Amílcar Cardoso
Keyword(s):  
Training Data ◽  
Geometric Feature ◽  
Automatic Identification ◽  
Computational Domain ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Concept Representation ◽  
Data Problem ◽  
Rans Modeling ◽  
Concrete Concepts

The term concept has been a prominent part of investigations in psychology and neurobiology where, mostly, it is mathematically or theoretically represented. Concepts are also studied in the computational domain through their symbolic, distributed and hybrid representations. The majority of these approaches focused on addressing concrete concepts notion, but the view of the abstract concept is rarely explored. Moreover, most computational approaches have a predefined structure or configurations. The proposed method, Regulated Activation Network (RAN), has an evolving topology and learns representations of abstract concepts by exploiting the geometrical view of concepts, without supervision. In the article, first, a Toy-data problem was used to demonstrate the RANs modeling. Secondly, we demonstrate the liberty of concept identifier choice in RANs modeling and deep hierarchy generation using the IRIS dataset. Thirdly, data from the IoT’s human activity recognition problem is used to show automatic identification of alike classes as abstract concepts. The evaluation of RAN with eight UCI benchmarks and the comparisons with five Machine Learning models establishes the RANs credibility as a classifier. The classification operation also proved the RANs hypothesis of abstract concept representation. The experiments demonstrate the RANs ability to simulate psychological processes (like concept creation and learning) and carry out effective classification irrespective of training data size.

scholarly journals Abstract Concept Learning in Cognitive Robots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Di Nuovo ◽  
Angelo Cangelosi
Keyword(s):  
Concept Learning ◽  
Cognitive Robotics ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Abstract Knowledge ◽  
Benchmark Datasets ◽  
Artificial Learning ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Cognitive Robots

Abstract Purpose of Review Understanding and manipulating abstract concepts is a fundamental characteristic of human intelligence that is currently missing in artificial agents. Without it, the ability of these robots to interact socially with humans while performing their tasks would be hindered. However, what is needed to empower our robots with such a capability? In this article, we discuss some recent attempts on cognitive robot modeling of these concepts underpinned by some neurophysiological principles. Recent Findings For advanced learning of abstract concepts, an artificial agent needs a (robotic) body, because abstract and concrete concepts are considered a continuum, and abstract concepts can be learned by linking them to concrete embodied perceptions. Pioneering studies provided valuable information about the simulation of artificial learning and demonstrated the value of the cognitive robotics approach to study aspects of abstract cognition. Summary There are a few successful examples of cognitive models of abstract knowledge based on connectionist and probabilistic modeling techniques. However, the modeling of abstract concept learning in robots is currently limited at narrow tasks. To make further progress, we argue that closer collaboration among multiple disciplines is required to share expertise and co-design future studies. Particularly important is to create and share benchmark datasets of human learning behavior.

scholarly journals Situational systematicity: A role for schema in understanding the differences between abstract and concrete concepts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles P. Davis ◽  
Gerry Altmann ◽  
Eiling Yee
Keyword(s):  
Concept Learning ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Control Network ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Critical Determinant ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Concrete Concept

Abstract concepts differ from concrete concepts in a number of ways. Here, we focus on what we refer to as situational systematicity: The objects and relations that constitute an abstract concept (e.g., justice) are more dispersed through space and time than are the objects and relations that typically constitute a concrete concept (e.g., chair); a larger set of objects and relations might potentially constitute an abstract concept than a concrete one; and exactly which objects and relations constitute a concept is likely more context-dependent for abstract than for concrete concepts. We thus refer to abstract concepts as having low situational systematicity. We contend that situational systematicity, rather than abstractness per se, may be a critical determinant of the cognitive, behavioral, and neural phenomena typically associated with concepts. We also contend that investigating concepts through the lens of schema provides insight into the situation-based dynamics of concept learning and representation, and into the functional significance of the interactions between brain regions that make up the schema control network.

scholarly journals Learning and Using Abstract Words: Evidence from Clinical Populations

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Luisa Lorusso ◽  
Michele Burigo ◽  
Alessandro Tavano ◽  
Anna Milani ◽  
Sara Martelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Cognitive Profile ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Concrete Words

It has been shown that abstract concepts are more difficult to process and are acquired later than concrete concepts. We analysed the percentage of concrete words in the narrative lexicon of individuals with Williams Syndrome (WS) as compared to individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) and typically developing (TD) peers. The cognitive profile of WS is characterized by visual-spatial difficulties, while DS presents with predominant impairments in linguistic abilities. We predicted that if linguistic abilities are crucial to the development and use of an abstract vocabulary, DS participants should display a higher concreteness index than both Williams Syndrome and typically developing individuals. Results confirm this prediction, thus supporting the hypothesis of a crucial role of linguistic processes in abstract language acquisition. Correlation analyses suggest that a maturational link exists between the level of abstractness in narrative production and syntactic comprehension.

scholarly journals Emotion and concreteness effects when learning novel concepts in the native language

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-191
Author(s):  
Marc Guasch ◽  
Pilar Ferré
Keyword(s):  
Native Language ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Intentional Learning ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Concrete Words ◽  
Better Than

Abstract The aim of the present study was to test the proposal of Kousta et al. (2011), according to which abstract words are more affectively loaded than concrete words. To this end, we focused on the acquisition of novel concepts by means of an intentional learning experiment in which participants had to learn a set of 40 novel concepts in Spanish (definitions) associated with novel word forms (pseudowords). Concreteness (concrete vs. abstract concepts) and emotionality (neutral vs. negative concepts) were orthogonally manipulated. Acquisition was assessed through a recognition task in which participants were asked to match the novel word forms with their definitions. Results showed that concrete concepts were acquired better than abstract concepts. Importantly, the concreteness advantage disappeared when the content of the concept was negative. Hence, emotional (negative) content facilitated the acquisition of abstract concepts, but not of concrete concepts, giving support to the proposal of Kousta et al. (2011).

scholarly journals Exploring Geometric Feature Hyper-Space in Data to Learn Representations of Abstract Concepts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Sharma ◽  
Bernardete Ribeiro ◽  
Alexandre Miguel Pinto ◽  
Amilcar F cardoso
Keyword(s):  
Training Data ◽  
Geometric Feature ◽  
Automatic Identification ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Concept Representation ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Hyper Space ◽  
Hierarchy Generation ◽  
Iris Data

The term Concept has been a prominent part of investigations in psychology and neurobiology where, mostly, it is mathematically or theoretically represented. The Concepts are also studied computationally through their symbolic, distributed and hybrid representations. The majority of these approaches focused on addressing concrete concepts notion, but the view of the abstract concept is rarely explored. Moreover, most computational approaches have a predefined structure or configurations. The proposed method, Regulated Activation Network (RAN), has an evolving topology and learns representations of Abstract Concepts by exploiting the geometrical view of Concepts, without supervision. In the article, the IRIS data was used to demonstrate: the RAN's modeling; flexibility in concept identifier choice; and deep hierarchy generation. Data from IoT's Human Activity Recognition problem is used to show automatic identification of alike classes as abstract concepts. The evaluation of RAN with 8 UCI benchmarks and the comparisons with 5 Machine Learning models establishes the RANs credibility as a classifier. The classification operation also proved the RAN's hypothesis of abstract concept representation. The experiments demonstrate the RANs ability to simulate psychological processes (like concept creation and learning) and carry out effective classification irrespective of training data size.

Are abstract and concrete concepts organized differently? Evidence from the blocked translation paradigm

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 1059-1092 ◽  
Author(s):  
XIAOHONG ZHANG ◽  
ZAIZHU HAN ◽  
YANCHAO BI
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Similarity ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Significant Interference ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Concrete Words ◽  
Semantic Impairment

ABSTRACTUsing the blocked-translation paradigm with healthy participants, we examined Crutch and Warrington's hypothesis that concrete and abstract concepts are organized by distinct principles: concrete concepts by semantic similarities and abstract ones by associations. In three experiments we constructed two types of experimental blocking (similar vs. associative) for both abstract and concrete words. In Experiment 1, we first attempted to transfer previous findings observed in patients by Crutch and Warrington with semantic impairment to healthy participants. In Experiment 2 only noun stimuli were used, and we further included two semantically categorical conditions that differed by a degree of semantic similarity (close vs. distant). In Experiment 3, verbs were used exclusively. Consistent results were obtained across all three experiments: Significant interference effects were observed for abstract items that were blocked by an associative relationship and by a semantic similarity, and for concrete items that were blocked by a semantic similarity (category) but not when they were blocked by an association. The effect of similarity-close was greater than that of similarity-distant in the noun experiment. We argue that the results are in conflict with Crutch and Warrington's proposals, and can be accommodated by a theory of cooperating similarity and association connections for concrete and abstract concepts, with the association bearing more weight for abstract concepts.

Male and Female Voices: Selective Exposure to Sexism Reduction Efforts

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. Smith ◽  
Jessica L. McManus ◽  
Danielle C. Zanotti ◽  
Donald A. Saucier
Keyword(s):  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Voices

The Wisdom of Desire in the Song of Songs

2018 ◽  
pp. 260-275
Author(s):  
Carey Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Arousal ◽  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Voices ◽  
Human Desire

The Song of Songs offers a unique discussion of the experience of sexual longing through dialogues of an unnamed woman and man. The chapter focuses on the use of dialogic structure to frame three prominent discourses of desire: aesthetic appreciation, affective description, and subjective expressions of sexual arousal. These varied discourses affirm a polyphonic view on human desire from the embodied experience of the male and female voices of the Song. With its use of dialogue, the Song is characteristic of the Writings in offering a diversity of perspectives. The chapter further probes the canonical contribution of the Song’s testimony to human longing, sex, joy, and biodiversity.

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