Are abstract concepts structured via more concrete concepts
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Transcript of Are abstract concepts structured via more concrete concepts
Are abstract concepts structured via more concrete concepts?
John L. Dennis
in collaboration with Arthur B. Markman
Research supported by NIDA grant R21 DA015211-01A1 to A. B. Markman
Roadmap
Concrete representations shape our thinking of abstract representations.
Concrete domain of space shapes our thinking of the abstract domain of time via a structured metaphor.
Agency as a possible confound with this metaphor.
Abstract representations of agency shapes our thinking of the abstract domain of time.
Concrete representations shape our thinking of abstract representations.
How do we represent the abstract concepts like?
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Love Justice Time
Metaphoric Representation View (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)Abstract concepts are represented via a metaphor from more concrete concepts.
GOOD IS UP; BAD IS DOWNI’m feeling up.I’m feeling down.My spirits rose.My spirits sank.
Linguistic Evidence
Perceptual Symbol Systems (Barsalou, 1997Actions like predicates and recursion are done by perception.
Embodied Cognition (Clark, 2001; Prinz & Barsalou, 2000)Representations as context sensitive, embodied, and temporally based.
Metaphoric Structuring View (Boroditsky, 2000)Metaphors provide relational structure for abstract concepts, e.g., the ego-moving and time-moving metaphors.
Psychological Evidence
Ego & Time-Moving Metaphors
Ego-moving metaphorWe passed the deadline two days ago.
past deadline future
Ego & Time-Moving Metaphors
Ego-moving metaphorWe passed the deadline two days ago.
past deadline future
Ego & Time-Moving Metaphors
Ego-moving metaphorWe passed the deadline two days ago.
past deadline future
Time-moving metaphorThe deadline passed [us] two days ago.
past deadline future
Ego & Time-Moving Metaphors
Ego-moving metaphorWe passed the deadline two days ago.
past deadline future
Time-moving metaphorThe deadline passed [us] two days ago.
past deadline future
Roadmap
Concrete representations shape our thinking of abstract representations.
Concrete domain of space shapes our thinking of the abstract domain of time via a structured metaphor.
Spatial Primes
Metaphoric Structuring View
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Spatial Analog of Time-Moving Metaphor
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Spatial Analog of Ego-Moving Metaphor
Boroditsky, 2000 Figure 3
Next Wednesday's meeting has been moved forward two days.
What day is the meeting now that it has been rescheduled?
Temporally Ambiguous Question
Wednesday Wednesday
Monday Friday Monday Friday
Next Wednesday's meeting has been moved forward two days.
What day is the meeting now that it has been rescheduled?
Temporally Ambiguous Question
Wednesday Wednesday
Monday Friday Monday Friday
Next Wednesday's meeting has been moved forward two days.
What day is the meeting now that it has been rescheduled?
Temporally Ambiguous Question
Wednesday Wednesday
Monday Friday Monday Friday
Metaphoric Structuring View
Wednesday
Monday Friday
Monday Friday
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Metaphoric Structuring View
Wednesday
Monday Friday
Monday Friday
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QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressor
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Metaphoric Structuring View
Wednesday
Monday Friday
Wednesday
Monday Friday
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Roadmap
Concrete representations shape our thinking of abstract representations.
Concrete domain of space shapes our thinking of the abstract domain of time via a structured metaphor.
Agency as a possible confound with this metaphor.
Abstract representations of agency shapes our thinking of the abstract domain of time.
Ego-moving metaphor
past future
Relatively activeTime-moving metaphor
past future
Relatively passive
Agency as a possible confound with this metaphor.
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Relatively active
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Relatively passive
Boroditsky, 2000 Figure 3
Spatial Analog of Ego-Moving Metaphor Spatial Analog of Time-Moving Metaphor
Agency as a possible confound with this metaphor.
Roadmap
Concrete representations shape our thinking of abstract representations.
Concrete domain of space shapes our thinking of the abstract domain of time via a structured metaphor.
Agency as a possible confound with this metaphor.
Abstract representations of agency shapes our thinking of the abstract domain of time.
Agency
Agency vs. Passivity
Mary kissed Tom.
Mary = agent, cause of action Tom = patient, recipient of action
Interpersonal action verbs have an implicit causality (Fillmore, 1968)
Experiment Task 1 (prime)Unscramble either grammatical subject or grammatical object sentences using interpersonal action verbs.
Mary I under kissed the bridge
‘Agency’ primes ‘Passivity’ primes
Mary bridge me kissed the under
Task 2 (test)
Answer temporally ambiguous ‘next Wednesday’s meeting’ question.
Dennis & Markman, in prep
Predictions
Implicit representation of agency alters one’s thinking about time.
‘Agency’ primes will produce results consistent with the ego-moving metaphor.
‘Passivity’ primes will produce results consistent with the time-moving metaphor.
Abstract representations of agency shapes our thinking of the abstract domain of time.
Dennis & Markman, in prep
Results
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Control (No Prime) Agency ("I" GrammaticalSubject)
Passivity ("ME"Grammatical Object)
Condition
Proportion Selecting Friday
Ego-Moving(SelectingFriday)Time-Moving(SelectingMonday)
Conclusions
One’s implicit representation of agency altered one’s thinking about time.
‘Agency’ primes produced results consistent with the ego-moving metaphor.
‘Passivity’ primes produced results consistent with the time-moving metaphor.
Abstract representations of agency shapes our thinking of the abstract domain of time.
Dennis & Markman, in prep
Future Directions
One’s relative implicit agency cause one to systematically disambiguate a spatially ambiguous scene.
One’s relative implicit agency cause one to systematically disambiguate an agency ambiguous scene.
One’s implicit representation of approach/avoidance motivations changes how one thinks about time.
Dennis & Markman, in prep
ThanksMatt McGlone, Serge Block, Matt Jones, Kyungil Kim, Lisa Narvaez,
Tatjiana Feinstein, Jeff Laux, Micah and Eric Taylor:For helpful discussions
Leland Lockart, Andrew Friedman, Patrick Brown, Brian Gurbach, Jason Lopez and Sonya Crocker:
For their heroic data collection efforts
Leora Orent: for managing the Similarity and Cognition Lab
Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science: for inviting Lera Boroditsky to give a lecture 3 years ago on this topic.
Nevin Pecorelli:for encouraging my research on time despite my persistent tardiness.
experiment 2 (pilot)
negative valence agent primes
task 1 (prime)unscramble grammatical subject sentences using solely negative valence interpersonal action verbs
i.e.,
Mary under bridge badgered the I.
task 2 (test)
answer temporally ambiguous ‘next wednesday’s meeting’ question
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i pos&neg iav i neg iav control
condition
% chosen
Time-Moving (Mon)Ego-Moving (Fri)
experiment 2
resultssignificant trend difference between the neg & pos agent vs. neg agent
Which of these widgets is ahead? (please circle one) COND
c ontr o lm e cond it ionI condit ion
Count
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1 6
1 4
1 2
1 0
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TYPE
m onday
fr iday
Spatially ambiguous
kyak 03.31.05 n=80 iv; n=31 cont
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kp1 kp2 kp3 kp4 kp5 kp6 kp7 kp8 kp9 kp10 kp11 kp12 kp13
photos
diff from control
i conditionme conditionLog. (i condition)Log. (me condition)
<0=passive>0=active