Embodied Cognition Flashcards
What is social exclusion usually associated with?
Coldness.
What do people tend to use to describe social interactions?
Concepts based on bodily states.
What did Zhong & Leonardelli’s study show?
Exp1 - recall episode in which you were social excluded. What’s the room temperature?
Exp2 - online ball-tossing game. Excluded and control condition.
Excluded = greater desirability for warmer foods and drinks.
What do we usually use metaphors as?
Linguistic elements.
A way to experience and make sense of the world.
Explain the link between metaphors and embodiment.
Metaphors have been used to identify embodied processes.
What do symbolic models of embodied cognition rely on?
The idea that mental representations are conceptual and that cognition and perception are separated.
Based on the computer metaphor.
What are the two main assumptions of symbolic models?
The mind and the body are independent.
High-level cognition operates on abstract symbols that are linked to our perceptual experiences. Sensorimotor inputs are re-described by means of language-like symbols.
What did Barsalou say about cognition and symbols?
Cognition is inherently perceptual.
Brain contains perceptual not abstract symbols.
What do grounded cognitions reject in terms of traditional views of cognition?
Reject idea that knowledge is represented in terms of abstract symbols in memory.
Assume that cognition and perception are linked (e.g. power = up).
Where do metaphors usually originate from?
Experiences during childhood.
Give an example of where concepts are organised as spatial metaphors.
Morality = straightness.
What is the difference between embodied and grounded cognition?
Embodied: focus on bodily reactions.
Grounded: acknowledges that both physical senses and internal states/simulations can be the source of abstract concepts.
Explain the account of situated action.
It is the cognition evolved to support action and interaction.
What are thoughts, feeling and behaviours grounded in?
Perception and bodily states.
Give an example of a simulation mechanism.
Mental imagery.
What are the 3 types of simulations?
Perceptual, motor and introspective experiences.
What two factors make our cognitions become grounded in perception?
Repeated experiences and the metaphors associated with them.
Explain the Mind-body link.
The working model of embodiment assumes a link between abstract, conceptual representations and sensorimotor representations.
What do both Darwin and Galton define attitudes in terms of?
Posture.
Shows the idea of embodiment in attitude studies!
Explain Wells & Petty’s study + results.
There was more favourable attitudes towards the content of a message after nodding vs shaking head.
Association between bodily posture + motor behaviours with positive and negative attitudes.
Explain Bargh, Chen & Burrows study + results.
Walking speed study.
Hypothesis: Behaviour can be automatically activated by the environment.
Results: pps walked slower in the elderly priming condition. Mental representation of elderly stereotype includes sensory-motor representations (embodiment!!!).
What was a weakness of Bargh’s study?
There was replication issues.
Maybe results were manipulated?
Explain Schubert’s study + results.
Hypothesis: powerful = up, powerless = down.
Reaction time task.
Pps found powerful and powerless group faster when they were in their respective positions.
Explain Pacilli’s study + results.
Write about 2 episodes in which you felt moral/immoral.
Select picture the you prefer the most - straight or curved.
Moral condition = preferred straight picture.
Name some possible applications of Pacilli’s study.
Priming straightness?
Can straightness elicit moral behaviours?
What has research in embodiment been mainly focusing on?
Descriptive level… E.g. showing that metaphors are real.
Name some areas in which research could develop.
Start from behaviour and not metaphor.
Test boundary conditions + mediators.
Consider outcomes linked to actions.
Test individual differences.
State and explain one study that showed how boundary conditions and mediators play a role in embodied cognition.
Rate how funny certain cartoons are. Pps either exposed to + or - emotions.
Positive emotions = funnier ratings.
Inhibiting facial muscles blocked this effect! - Mediator.
State and explain one study which showed how individual differences play a role in embodied cognition.
Moral Stroop effect - personality related. Stronger association between morality + white and immorality + black in individuals that like cleaning products.
Individual differences may play a role beyond personality. Give another example.
Physical abilities - e.g. health, age.
