Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and body manipulation
Current approaches on cognition hold that concrete concepts are grounded in concrete experiences. There is no consensus, however, as to whether this is equally true for abstract concepts. In this review we discuss how the body might be involved in understanding abstract concepts through metaphor act...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00757/full |
| _version_ | 1828454002744885248 |
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| author | Katinka eDijkstra Anita eEerland Lysanne ePost Josjan eZijlmans |
| author_facet | Katinka eDijkstra Anita eEerland Lysanne ePost Josjan eZijlmans |
| author_sort | Katinka eDijkstra |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Current approaches on cognition hold that concrete concepts are grounded in concrete experiences. There is no consensus, however, as to whether this is equally true for abstract concepts. In this review we discuss how the body might be involved in understanding abstract concepts through metaphor activation. Substantial research has been conducted on the activation of common orientational metaphors with bodily manipulations, such as ‘power is up’ and ‘more is up’ representations. We will focus on the political metaphor that has a more complex association between the concept and the concrete domain. However, the outcomes of studies on this political metaphor have not always been consistent, possibly because the experimental manipulation was not implicit enough. The inclusion of new technological devices in this area of research, such as the Wii Balance Board, seems promising in order to assess the groundedness of abstract conceptual spatial metaphors in an implicit manner. This may aid further research to effectively demonstrate the interrelatedness between the body and more abstract representations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T00:16:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-384fef93db154e09a528cc62cdd18bb6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T00:16:11Z |
| publishDate | 2014-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-384fef93db154e09a528cc62cdd18bb62022-12-22T01:27:57ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782014-08-01510.3389/fpsyg.2014.0075796158Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and body manipulationKatinka eDijkstra0Anita eEerland1Lysanne ePost2Josjan eZijlmans3Erasmus University RotterdamOpen UniversityErasmus University RotterdamFree University Medical CenterCurrent approaches on cognition hold that concrete concepts are grounded in concrete experiences. There is no consensus, however, as to whether this is equally true for abstract concepts. In this review we discuss how the body might be involved in understanding abstract concepts through metaphor activation. Substantial research has been conducted on the activation of common orientational metaphors with bodily manipulations, such as ‘power is up’ and ‘more is up’ representations. We will focus on the political metaphor that has a more complex association between the concept and the concrete domain. However, the outcomes of studies on this political metaphor have not always been consistent, possibly because the experimental manipulation was not implicit enough. The inclusion of new technological devices in this area of research, such as the Wii Balance Board, seems promising in order to assess the groundedness of abstract conceptual spatial metaphors in an implicit manner. This may aid further research to effectively demonstrate the interrelatedness between the body and more abstract representations.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00757/fullEmbodied CognitionAbstract ConceptsWii balance boardconceptual metaphorsbody manipulation |
| spellingShingle | Katinka eDijkstra Anita eEerland Lysanne ePost Josjan eZijlmans Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and body manipulation Frontiers in Psychology Embodied Cognition Abstract Concepts Wii balance board conceptual metaphors body manipulation |
| title | Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and body manipulation |
| title_full | Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and body manipulation |
| title_fullStr | Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and body manipulation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and body manipulation |
| title_short | Embodied cognition, abstract concepts, and body manipulation |
| title_sort | embodied cognition abstract concepts and body manipulation |
| topic | Embodied Cognition Abstract Concepts Wii balance board conceptual metaphors body manipulation |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00757/full |
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