A test of indirect grounding of abstract concepts using multimodal distributional semantics
How are abstract concepts grounded in perceptual experiences for shaping human conceptual knowledge? Recent studies on abstract concepts emphasizing the role of language have argued that abstract concepts are grounded indirectly in perceptual experiences and language (or words) functions as a bridge...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-10-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.906181/full |
| _version_ | 1811181621082062848 |
|---|---|
| author | Akira Utsumi |
| author_facet | Akira Utsumi |
| author_sort | Akira Utsumi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | How are abstract concepts grounded in perceptual experiences for shaping human conceptual knowledge? Recent studies on abstract concepts emphasizing the role of language have argued that abstract concepts are grounded indirectly in perceptual experiences and language (or words) functions as a bridge between abstract concepts and perceptual experiences. However, this “indirect grounding” view remains largely speculative and has hardly been supported directly by empirical evidence. In this paper, therefore, we test the indirect grounding view by means of multimodal distributional semantics, in which the meaning of a word (i.e., a concept) is represented as the combination of textual and visual vectors. The newly devised multimodal distributional semantic model incorporates the indirect grounding view by computing the visual vector of an abstract word through the visual vectors of concrete words semantically related to that abstract word. An evaluation experiment is conducted in which conceptual representation is predicted from multimodal vectors using a multilayer feed-forward neural network. The analysis of prediction performance demonstrates that the indirect grounding model achieves significantly better performance in predicting human conceptual representation of abstract words than other models that mimic competing views on abstract concepts, especially than the direct grounding model in which the visual vectors of abstract words are computed directly from the images of abstract concepts. This result lends some plausibility to the indirect grounding view as a cognitive mechanism of grounding abstract concepts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:20:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-792c4c9b23a6422bb229128924e38129 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:20:29Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-792c4c9b23a6422bb229128924e381292022-12-22T04:32:13ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-10-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.906181906181A test of indirect grounding of abstract concepts using multimodal distributional semanticsAkira UtsumiHow are abstract concepts grounded in perceptual experiences for shaping human conceptual knowledge? Recent studies on abstract concepts emphasizing the role of language have argued that abstract concepts are grounded indirectly in perceptual experiences and language (or words) functions as a bridge between abstract concepts and perceptual experiences. However, this “indirect grounding” view remains largely speculative and has hardly been supported directly by empirical evidence. In this paper, therefore, we test the indirect grounding view by means of multimodal distributional semantics, in which the meaning of a word (i.e., a concept) is represented as the combination of textual and visual vectors. The newly devised multimodal distributional semantic model incorporates the indirect grounding view by computing the visual vector of an abstract word through the visual vectors of concrete words semantically related to that abstract word. An evaluation experiment is conducted in which conceptual representation is predicted from multimodal vectors using a multilayer feed-forward neural network. The analysis of prediction performance demonstrates that the indirect grounding model achieves significantly better performance in predicting human conceptual representation of abstract words than other models that mimic competing views on abstract concepts, especially than the direct grounding model in which the visual vectors of abstract words are computed directly from the images of abstract concepts. This result lends some plausibility to the indirect grounding view as a cognitive mechanism of grounding abstract concepts.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.906181/fullabstract conceptsindirect groundingembodied cognitionmultimodal distributional semantic modelconceptual representationsymbol grounding problem |
| spellingShingle | Akira Utsumi A test of indirect grounding of abstract concepts using multimodal distributional semantics Frontiers in Psychology abstract concepts indirect grounding embodied cognition multimodal distributional semantic model conceptual representation symbol grounding problem |
| title | A test of indirect grounding of abstract concepts using multimodal distributional semantics |
| title_full | A test of indirect grounding of abstract concepts using multimodal distributional semantics |
| title_fullStr | A test of indirect grounding of abstract concepts using multimodal distributional semantics |
| title_full_unstemmed | A test of indirect grounding of abstract concepts using multimodal distributional semantics |
| title_short | A test of indirect grounding of abstract concepts using multimodal distributional semantics |
| title_sort | test of indirect grounding of abstract concepts using multimodal distributional semantics |
| topic | abstract concepts indirect grounding embodied cognition multimodal distributional semantic model conceptual representation symbol grounding problem |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.906181/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT akirautsumi atestofindirectgroundingofabstractconceptsusingmultimodaldistributionalsemantics AT akirautsumi testofindirectgroundingofabstractconceptsusingmultimodaldistributionalsemantics |