Mapping the brain's metaphor circuitry: metaphorical thought in everyday reason

Lakoff, George

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00958

Cited by 219 publications

(197 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…However, whether the metonymies and conceptual metaphors were originally invented in many languages or just one, this still leaves the question of how these phrases came about in the first place. Lakoff (2009Lakoff ( , 2014 has postulated that metonymies and conceptual metaphors are possible because physiological sensations often accompany emotional experiences. As William James (1890) said, "What kind of an emotion of fear would be left if the feeling neither of quickened heart-beats nor of shallow breathing, neither of trembling lips nor of weakened limbs, neither of goose-flesh nor of visceral stirrings, were present, it is quite impossible for me to think" (p. 452).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As William James (1890) said, "What kind of an emotion of fear would be left if the feeling neither of quickened heart-beats nor of shallow breathing, neither of trembling lips nor of weakened limbs, neither of goose-flesh nor of visceral stirrings, were present, it is quite impossible for me to think" (p. 452). Physical experiences like warmth, proximity, height, and movement co-occur with emotional experiences, which causes these sensations to be bound into neural circuits with the emotions themselves (Lakoff, 2009(Lakoff, , 2014). These internal sensations can then be used to help understand emotions (Lakoff, 2014;Meier & Robinson, 2005).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Physical experiences like warmth, proximity, height, and movement co-occur with emotional experiences, which causes these sensations to be bound into neural circuits with the emotions themselves (Lakoff, 2009(Lakoff, , 2014). These internal sensations can then be used to help understand emotions (Lakoff, 2014;Meier & Robinson, 2005). Moreover, invoking cognitive structures related to sensations influences emotional reactions and social responses (Fay & Maner, 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…People might say, I'm feeling up, she had cold feet, or he was hot-headed. Indeed, figurative language appears to be embedded in how people think (Lakoff, 2014). Not surprisingly, figurative language sometimes creeps into psychological tests related to emotions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is sadness blue? The problem of using figurative language for emotions on psychological tests

2016

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Psychological tests sometimes include figurative language like I feel blue. However, figurative language may not mean the same thing cross-culturally. Previous research found cross-cultural evidence for 14 conceptual metaphors and metonymies for emotions (e.g., sadness is blue). Our two studies asked participants (total n = 795) in the USA and India whether happiness, sadness, anger, and fear are associated with certain descriptors (blue, down, bright, etc.). Most participants in both countries endorsed ten of the 14 hypothesized associations; however, the percentage of participants endorsing an association was often far from 100 %. For example, in the USA, only 71.7 % associated hot with anger and only 65.9 % associated blue with sadness. Moreover, descriptors were often associated with more than one emotion. Furthermore, only two associations (happiness is up and bright) were endorsed by more than 90 % of participants in both countries and had descriptors that were not associated with additional emotions. We conclude that figurative language is often ambiguous and should be used with caution on psychological tests unless there is evidence the language is understood cross-culturally. Advice to this effect is currently lacking from psychometrics textbooks and should be added.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Is sadness blue? The problem of using figurative language for emotions on psychological tests

2016

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“…Abstract concepts would get their meaning via conceptual metaphors, a combination of basic primitive metaphors that get their meaning via embodied experience. Therefore, Lakoff (2014) concludes that the meaning of concepts comes through embodied cognition. Moreover, in Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the authors argued that metaphorical inferences would arise from neural simulation of experienced situations.…”

Section: Sensorimotor Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Exploration Behaviors, Body Representations, and Simulation Processes for the Development of Cognition in Artificial Agents

2016

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Sensorimotor control and learning are fundamental prerequisites for cognitive development in humans and animals. Evidence from behavioral sciences and neuroscience suggests that motor and brain development are strongly intertwined with the experiential process of exploration, where internal body representations are formed and maintained over time. In order to guide our movements, our brain must hold an internal model of our body and constantly monitor its configuration state. How can sensorimotor control enable the development of more complex cognitive and motor capabilities? Although a clear answer has still not been found for this question, several studies suggest that processes of mental simulation of action-perception loops are likely to be executed in our brain and are dependent on internal body representations. Therefore, the capability to re-enact sensorimotor experience might represent a key mechanism behind the implementation of higher cognitive capabilities, such as behavior recognition, arbitration and imitation, sense of agency, and self-other distinction. This work is mainly addressed to researchers in autonomous motor and mental development for artificial agents. In particular, it aims at gathering the latest developments in the studies on exploration behaviors, internal body representations, and processes of sensorimotor simulations. Relevant studies in human and animal sciences are discussed and a parallel to similar investigations in robotics is presented.

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Students' reasoning about chemical bonding: The lacuna of repulsion

Zohar

Levy

2019

J Res Sci Teach

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This article concerns a lacuna in chemistry students' reasoning about chemical bonding. Although chemistry students are familiar with the charges that make up the atom––both positive and negative––they refer only to the attraction between unlike charges. Specifically, they ignore the repulsion between the positive nuclei. We named this disregard of repulsion the lacuna of repulsion. Repulsion is a crucial component in the force‐based explanation of chemical bonding, presenting the bond as a dynamic equilibrium between attraction and repulsion electrical forces. We noticed this lacuna incidentally while interviewing chemistry students for a bigger project aimed at supporting students in understanding the force‐based explanation of chemical bonding. This article describes our systematic qualitative study of the lacuna of repulsion and its impact on mental models of 23 high school chemistry students. Our findings show that students use six mental models, most of them built upon each other. Beginning from a simple mental model that describes the chemical bond as electrons, continuing with the including attraction forces, and completing with repulsion and a dynamic view of the bond. Only when one considers both attraction and repulsion forces and understands the dynamic balance between them is it possible to build the force‐based dynamic mental model of chemical bonding.

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Mapping the brain's metaphor circuitry: metaphorical thought in everyday reason

Cited by 219 publications

References 53 publications

Is sadness blue? The problem of using figurative language for emotions on psychological tests

Is sadness blue? The problem of using figurative language for emotions on psychological tests

Exploration Behaviors, Body Representations, and Simulation Processes for the Development of Cognition in Artificial Agents

Students' reasoning about chemical bonding: The lacuna of repulsion

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