Acquisition of abstract concepts is influenced by emotional valence

Ponari, Marta; Norbury, Courtenay; Vigliocco, Gabriella

doi:10.1111/desc.12549

Cited by 119 publications

(186 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…In this process syntax and semantics are strictly linked: syntax cannot substitute semantics, but it can help learners to narrow their hypotheses on the possible word meaning. Recently, proponents of multiple representation views have emphasized the importance of language for AC learning [9,18,19] and representation [10,16,20 -23]. Why should language be important for ACs?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abstract concepts, language and sociality: from acquisition to inner speech

Borghi

Barca

Binkofski

et al. 2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The problem of representation of abstract concepts, such as 'freedom' and 'justice', has become particularly crucial in recent years, owing to the increased success of embodied and grounded views of cognition. We will present a novel view on abstract concepts and abstract words. Since abstract concepts do not have single objects as referents, children and adults might rely more on input from others to learn them; we, therefore, suggest that linguistic and social experience play an important role for abstract concepts. We will discuss evidence obtained in our and other laboratories showing that processing of abstract concepts evokes linguistic interaction and social experiences, leading to the activation of the mouth motor system. We will discuss the possible mechanisms that underlie this activation. Mouth motor system activation can be due to re-enactment of the experience of conceptual acquisition, which occurred through the mediation of language. Alternatively, it could be due to the re-explanation of the word meaning, possibly through inner speech. Finally, it can be due to a metacognitive process revealing low confidence in the meaning of our concepts. This process induces in us the need to rely on others to ask/negotiate conceptual meaning. We conclude that with abstract concepts language works as a social tool: it extends our thinking abilities and pushes us to rely on others to integrate our knowledge.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use, and representation in the brain'.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abstract concepts, language and sociality: from acquisition to inner speech

Borghi

Barca

Binkofski

et al. 2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…in RTs analyses on both experiments and on both tasks: overall, abstract concepts were processed 513 slower than concrete ones (E1 and E2 lexical decision, E1 and E2 recognition) and in Experiment 514 1 they yielded more errors than emotional concepts in the lexical decision task and slightly more 515 errors than concrete concepts in the recognition task. Our results confirm the well-established 516 concreteness effect (Paivio, 1986; but see exceptions to the effect when controlling stimuli for 517 valence: Kousta et al, 2011;Barca et al, 2002), that shows that abstract words are slower than 518 concrete ones, and extended it showing that in the lexical decision task they are also slower than 519 emotional words (see also Ponari et al, 2017). 520 521…”

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confidence: 85%

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Supplemental Information 1: Pedal Used to Respond to the Stimuli (Experiment 2)

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emotional and concrete concepts and the activation of mouth-hand effectors.According to embodied and grounded theories concepts are grounded in sensorimotor systems. The majority of evidence supporting these views concerns concepts referring to objects or actions, while evidence on abstract concepts is more scarce. Explaining how abstract concepts, as "freedom", are represented, would however be pivotal for grounded theories. According to some recent proposals, abstract concepts are grounded evoking both sensorimotor and linguistic experience, thus activating the mouth motor system more than concrete concepts. Two experiments are reported, aimed at verifying whether abstract, concrete and emotional words activate the mouth and hand effectors. In both experiments participants performed first a lexical decision, then a recognition task. In Experiment 1 participants responded by pressing a button either with the mouth or with the hand, in Experiment 2 responses were given with the foot, while a button held either in the mouth or in the hand was used to respond to catch-trials. Abstract words were slower to process in both tasks (concreteness effect). Across the tasks and experiments, emotional concepts had instead a fluctuating pattern, different from those of both concrete and abstract concepts, suggesting that they cannot be considered as a subset of abstract concepts. The interaction between kind of concept (abstract, concrete and emotional) and effector (mouth, hand) was not significant in the lexical decision task, likely because it emerged only with tasks implying a deeper processing level. It reached significance, instead, in the accuracy analyses of the recognition tasks. In both experiments abstract concepts yielded less errors in the mouth than in the hand condition, supporting our main prediction. Emotional concepts had instead a more variable pattern. Overall, our findings indicate that different kinds of concepts differently activate the mouth and hand effectors, but they also suggests that concepts activate effectors in a flexible and task-dependent way.PeerJ Preprints | https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26559v2 | CC BY 4.0 Open Access | rec:Abstract, Emotional and Concrete Concepts and the 2 activation of mouth-hand effectors.3 4 5

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“…They suggested that as vocabulary and linguistic competence increases, children make greater use of linguistic information (e.g. from the text), and are more able to make use of correlational patterns in discourse in order to extrapolate abstract meaning from the linguistic context [13]. Children with DLD have reduced vocabulary and deficits in syntactic competence, and it has been shown that they are not as attuned as TD peers to statistical co-occurrences in language input [48].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is also growing evidence that processing abstract concepts in adults involves motor representations [8,9], simulation of specific situations [10] and the emotion system [11,12]. In development, Ponari et al [13] showed that abstract words with emotional connotations are learnt earlier than neutral abstract words, suggesting that emotion could serve as a bootstrapping mechanism for the learning of abstract words and concepts. Scholars who argue for a role of embodied information in the learning and representation of abstract concepts also assume that linguistic information matters but do not claim 'language primacy' [8,14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning abstract words and concepts: insights from developmental language disorder

Ponari

Norbury

Rotaru

et al. 2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Some explanations of abstract word learning suggest that these words are learnt primarily from the linguistic input, using statistical co-occurrences of words in language, whereas concrete words can also rely on non-linguistic, experiential information. According to this hypothesis, we expect that, if the learner is not able to fully exploit the information in the linguistic input, abstract words should be affected more than concrete ones. Embodied approaches instead argue that both abstract and concrete words can rely on experiential information and, therefore, there might not be any linguistic primacy. Here, we test the role of linguistic input in the development of abstract knowledge with children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and typically developing children aged 8-13. We show that DLD children, who by definition have impoverished language, do not show a disproportionate impairment for abstract words in lexical decision and definition tasks. These results indicate that linguistic information does not have a primary role in the learning of abstract concepts and words; rather, it would play a significant role in semantic development across all domains of knowledge.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain'.

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Acquisition of abstract concepts is influenced by emotional valence

Cited by 119 publications

References 39 publications

Abstract concepts, language and sociality: from acquisition to inner speech

Abstract concepts, language and sociality: from acquisition to inner speech

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Learning abstract words and concepts: insights from developmental language disorder

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