Language and thought - embodiment

Question 1

What is embodied cognition?

Answer 1

The experience of living, sensing and perceiving the world fundamentally informs our conception of it - all elements of being in a body, shapes the way you perceive reality

Question 2

Example of embodied cognition

Answer 2

Containment - the experience of being in a room
you understand containment because of the embodied condition of having been contained and knowing the human body is subject to restrictions

Question 3

How do embodied concepts underlie thought and language?

Answer 3

Through conceptual metaphors e.g. an abstract state of being in a container ‘he fell into depression’ - not just figures of speech, but fundamental concepts

Question 4

Literal vs non-literal containment

Answer 4

literal - actual uses, he fell into a hole

non literal - he fell into depression

Question 5

Pecher et al - is it in the sky or ocean

Answer 5

Asked participants ‘is it found in the sky’ or ‘is it found in the ocean’
stimuli - helicopter, whale et
presented words at top or bottom of screen

Results - respond quicker if a matched condition eg. ocean word and bottom of screen, slowed down if mismatch e.g. when asked if is found in sky but is found in the ocean

the embodied experience of something being above/below you affected RT’s

Question 6

Pulvermuller et al - TSM to motor regions of the brain

Answer 6

Applied TSM to motor regions of the brain for arm or leg
Faster lexical decisions for leg related words (kick) with leg region stimulation and faster decision for arm related words (pick) with arm stimulation

language is part of experience

Question 7

Embodied cognition and imagery - swan and pecher

Answer 7

Participants read a sentence implying a particular colour. e.g. Sarah stopped in the wood to pick a leaf off the tree - expect a green leaf
then shown picture of a leaf, matching context (green) or mismatching (orange) and asked if object had appeared in the sentence - slower when the colour didn’t match

Question 8

Embodied cognition and imagery - connell and lynott

Answer 8

participants read a sentence implying a particular colour for the target: Joe was excited to see a bear in the woods - brown
Joe was excited to see a bear in the North Pole - white
then asked to name the colour of the target word in three conditions: typical (brown) aypitcal (white) and unrelated (yellow)

Naming timing - quicker if asked to imagine a bear in woods and asked to name typical colour, in north pole, quicker to name typical and atypical l bear but loads slower for unrelated

suggests the colour we expect something to be is automatically evoked by language