Week 8 Lecture 2

Question 1

What is meaning?

Answer 1

The conceptual knowledge we have and our understanding of the world.

Question 2

What is the brain’s conceptual system thought to be? Why?

Answer 2

A symbolic system independent of everything else, consisting of randomly chosen abstract symbols independent of perceptual modalities.

In the 80s they related the brain to how a computer works - the abstract symbols C, A, T make a cat so maybe this is how the brain processes things as well.

Question 3

Chinese room problem.

Answer 3

John Searle (1980).
Wanted to challenge the idea that AI was truly intelligent.
Language is a circular problem. We are using symbols (words) to explain other symbols (words).
Symbolic representations don’t generate meaning.

Question 4

What provides more meaning? Perceptual or symbolic representations? Why?

Answer 4

Perceptual representations.
Symbolic representations is a circular issue - words explained by words. Perceptual gives more understanding as image - can visualise and understand. Perceptual information is not random.

Therefore, meaning is grounded in perceptual experience rather than random symbols.

Question 5

What are the two possibilities of how meaning is represented in the brain?

Answer 5

Symbolic
Grounded conceptual system

Question 6

Symbolic view of information coding in the brain examples.

Answer 6

Barsalou (2008)
The chair is something tangible in the world.
If it is represented by random symbols in the brain, when we hear or read about it the random symbols would be reactivated and so create the circular problem (suggested by John Searle, 1980) - no restriction about what symbols you can use so the brain can’t figure out what they mean.

Question 7

Grounded conceptual system view of information coding in the brain example.

Answer 7

Barsalou (2008)
The chair is something tangible in the world.
When you learn about the chair you extract experiences with the chair and remember them e.g. the colour, feel, tactile sensation.
When you hear the word you partially reactivate the experiences leading to recognition of the chair.
Constrains are sensory motor constraints and represent the chair unlike the symbols used in the symbolic view.

Question 8

What would happen in an experiment symbolic vs grounded conceptual system view.

Answer 8

Symbolic - language system is isolated separate from everything such as motor, auditory systems etc.
Conceptual - activate different senses/ideas you have learned about the concept or object which interact with other senses.

Question 9

Visual orientation and sentence comprehension experiment.

Answer 9

Stanfield & Zwaan (2001)
Sentence e.g. John put the pencil in the cup/drawer - two orientations.
After reading, showed people an image of a vertical or horizontal object and asked if a pencil was mentioned in the sentence.

Question 10

Visual orientation and sentence comprehension experiment.
Symbolic view.

Answer 10

The pencil would be understood in abstract symbols so the context should not matter. Correct answer should be given every time.

Question 11

Visual orientation and sentence comprehension experiment.
Grounded perceptual view.

Answer 11

Depending on the sentence used (cup/drawer) visual representation will be different. If sentence 1 used - participants respond faster to vertical pencil, opposite for sentence 2.

Question 12

Visual orientation in sentence comprehension.
Conclusion.

Answer 12

Therefore, when reading you activate orientation information.
Objects are not just abstract, they are based in context.

Question 13

Bodily movements in sentence comprehension. Experiment method.

Answer 13

Glenberg & Kaschak (2002)​.
2 sentences - you open/close the drawer.
Implies you pull towards/push away.
Participants hold a button while reading the question then have to press a button that is closer to them/further away from them (pull/push motion).
Buttons are yes/no - does the sentence make sense.

Question 14

Bodily movements in sentence comprehension. Symbolic view.

Answer 14

Glenberg & Kaschak (2002)​.
Position of the button should not affect reaction time - sentence not embedded within context.

Question 15

Bodily movements in sentence comprehension. Grounded perceptual view.

Answer 15

Glenberg & Kaschak (2002)​.
If the button press action goes against the sentence action should be a slower reaction time - this was the result found in the study.

Question 16

Evidence that systems are re-activated when encountering concepts after learning.

Answer 16

Kiefer et al., 2008
Sound related words activate parts of the auditory cortex for sound perception.
Some sound related words presented e.g. bell and some non-sound related e.g. cake (visual and taste).
If activation of auditory cortex is greater for sound related words - language processing involved word recognition.

2 tasks -
1. read sound/non-sound related words.
2. listen to actual sounds (meaningful) or white noise

Auditory cortex activated extensively for listening to real sounds and reading sound related words.
Therefore, language processing involves other perceptual systems.

Question 17

Evidence that sound activation is part of the word recognition judgement task.

Answer 17

Keifer 2008
ERP study.
Present sound and non-sound related words (read them).
ERP signal diverged (was not the same) after 200ms.
Activity difference in left posterior brain.
As the word recognition judgement task takes 500ms, activating the sound must be part of the task.

Question 18

Evidence that different parts of the motor cortex control different parts of the body.

Part 2: Action words

Answer 18

Hauk et al. (2004)​
Participants asked to move different parts of their body e.g. wiggle toes, fingers, tongue etc.
Each movement activates a different part of the motor cortex.
Lower part of the motor cortex controls upper body and opposite true.

When participants read verbs related to different parts of the body e.g. pick, lick, kick the same brain areas are activated.

Question 19

How does personal experience influence motor cortex brain activation?

Answer 19

Willems et al., 2009

Compared LH and RH individuals.
Presented visually single handed actions and non-manual action words.
Single handed actions e.g. squeeze, knock activates the opposite side of the brain e.g. knock with RH left brain activated.
Non-manual action e.g. breathing, blowing, smelling there was no specific activation as no specific hand movement.

Question 20

Atrophy of which part of the brain is related to semantic dementia?

Answer 20

Anterior temporal lobe

Question 21

Characteristics of semantic dementia

Answer 21

Selective semantic deficits e.g. naming, categorisation, word-picture matching, object recognition.
Other functions are normal e.g. visuospatial, memory (WM + LTM) and syntactic (forming sentences).

Question 22

Semantic dementia tasks

Answer 22

Patterson et al., 2007

Present patients with animals and ask them to recreate what they saw after a delay.
They have some general understanding of animals but struggle with distinct features e.g. camels have a hump.

Ask them to name animals - ability degrades with time, become less specific e.g. ostrich –> bird –> cat –> animal.

Question 23

What does the anterior temporal lobe do?

Answer 23

Patterson et al., 2007

Organises atypical into categories and hierarchies e.g. we are able to understand that penguins are birds even though they look quite different to typical birds - semantic dementia patients cannot.

Question 24

Hub and spoke model

Answer 24

Spokes - sensory and motor experiences associated with the concepts.
Left anterior temporal lobe - pools all the experiences together to make a coherent concept.

Perceptual knowledge depends on experiences which are organised in hierarchies to develop complexities in human cognition.

Question 25

Difference between abstract and concrete concepts

Answer 25

Concrete concepts are grounded in sensory motor experiences, abstract concepts are not.

Question 26

What are the two approaches to abstract concepts?

Answer 26

Abstract concepts are grounded in concrete metaphors.
Abstract concepts are grounded in emotions.

Question 27

Time example of abstract concepts being grounded in concrete metaphors.

Answer 27

Time - Boroditsky & Ramscar (2002)​.
Time is abstract, but described as moving forward, like an arrow etc.
Could be grounded in the experience of moving forwards.

When asking people in a queue the question – next Wednesday’s meeting has been moved forward 2 days what day is the meeting? People at the front of the queue respond with Friday.

The same happened in the airport. Asked three groups of people – people picking others up, people about to fly or people have just landed. People who have experiences forward motion (just landed) say Friday.

Question 28

Size example of abstract concepts being grounded in concrete metaphors.

Answer 28

Yao et al., 2022
Abstract concepts have a magnitude e.g. the biggest moment of my life. Trust is big, trace is small.

Tasks:
1. Asked people to label trust as a castle, table or needed most people said castle.
2. visual word recognition judgement - present words like trace and trust in large and small font. People respond (agree it is a word) to trust quicker in big font and trace in smaller font.

Question 29

Abstract concepts grounded in emotions evidence

Answer 29

Vigliocco (2014)
Abstract concepts are grounded in internal experiences such as affective (emotional) experiences.

A plot between the emotionality and concreteness of words.
The most concrete words are neutral.
Abstract words are either strongly negative or positive.

fMRI - Rostral, ACC more active for processing abstract > concrete words. ACC related to emotional processing.