Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain

Borghi, Anna M.; Barca, Laura; Binkofski, Ferdinand; Tummolini, Luca

doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0121

Cited by 88 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…By contrast, some abstract categories, such as abstract construct and abstract action , were difficult to predict from text‐based word vectors. This result is consistent with the recent view on abstract concepts that abstract concepts are not a unitary whole, but comprise a variety of different types of concepts (Borghi, Barca, Binkofski, & Tummolini, 2018). Furthermore, the prediction accuracy of many categories of property was much lower than that of other categories.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Exploring What Is Encoded in Distributional Word Vectors: A Neurobiologically Motivated Analysis

Utsumi¹

2020

Cognitive Science

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The pervasive use of distributional semantic models or word embeddings for both cognitive modeling and practical application is because of their remarkable ability to represent the meanings of words. However, relatively little effort has been made to explore what types of information are encoded in distributional word vectors. Knowing the internal knowledge embedded in word vectors is important for cognitive modeling using distributional semantic models. Therefore, in this paper, we attempt to identify the knowledge encoded in word vectors by conducting a computational experiment using Binder et al.'s (2016) featural conceptual representations based on neurobiologically motivated attributes. In an experiment, these conceptual vectors are predicted from text‐based word vectors using a neural network and linear transformation, and prediction performance is compared among various types of information. The analysis demonstrates that abstract information is generally predicted more accurately by word vectors than perceptual and spatiotemporal information, and specifically, the prediction accuracy of cognitive and social information is higher. Emotional information is also found to be successfully predicted for abstract words. These results indicate that language can be a major source of knowledge about abstract attributes, and they support the recent view that emphasizes the importance of language for abstract concepts. Furthermore, we show that word vectors can capture some types of perceptual and spatiotemporal information about concrete concepts and some relevant word categories. This suggests that language statistics can encode more perceptual knowledge than often expected.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Exploring What Is Encoded in Distributional Word Vectors: A Neurobiologically Motivated Analysis

Utsumi¹

2020

Cognitive Science

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“…More crucially, our results are consistent with embodied theories claiming that abstract words are not only grounded in perception-action systems but also evoke linguistically conveyed information (Dove, 2014(Dove, , 2019Borghi & Binkofski, 2014;Moffat, Siakaluk, Sidhu & Pexman, 2015). Specifically, the Words As social Tools proposal (Borghi et al, 2018; predicts that activating linguistic information also involves its embodied counterpart, the speech motor system; and here we have shown that limiting speech articulators during infancy and beyond (up to 72 months of age) might have a lasting association with subsequent language processes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Overusing the pacifier during infancy sets a footprint on abstract words processing

2020

Self Cite

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Perturbations to the speech articulators induced by frequently using an interfering object during infancy (i.e., pacifier) might shape children's language experience and the building of conceptual representations. Seventy-one typically developing third graders performed a semantic categorization task with abstract, concrete and emotional words. Children who used the pacifier for a more extended period were slower than the others. Moreover, overusing the pacifier increased response time of abstract words, whereas emotional and (above all) concrete words were less affected. Results support the view that abstract words are grounded both in perception-action and in linguistic experience.

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“…Despite the fact that “the embodiment” is a label for different, and in some cases incoherent, approaches, most of its proponents agree that concepts—including abstract ones—are not arbitrary, amodal, and language-like symbols, as representatives of classic cognitive science typically assumed ( Fodor, 1975 ; Jackendoff, 2002 ). Instead, they are to emerge from the bodily interactions of individuals with their environments ( Clark, 1998 ; Barsalou, 1999 , 2008 ; Wilson, 2002 ; Borghi et al, 2018 ). Although some amodal models of number processing have been proposed in the past ( Groen & Parkman, 1972 ; Banks, Fujii & Kayra-Stuart, 1976 ), recently, there is growing agreement that mathematical concepts are indeed constrained by bodily activity and anchored, or systematically mapped, in sensorimotor systems ( Lakoff & Núñez, 2000 ; Moeller et al, 2012 ; Landy, Allen & Zednik, 2014 ; Dackermann et al, 2017 ; Wołoszyn & Hohol, 2017 ; Fischer, 2012 , 2018 ; Fischer & Shaki, 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A large-scale survey on finger counting routines, their temporal stability and flexibility in educated adults

Hohol

Kuniecki

Nuerk

et al. 2018

PeerJ

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A strong link between bodily activity and number processing has been established in recent years. Although numerous observations indicate that adults use finger counting (FC) in various contexts of everyday life for different purposes, existing knowledge of FC routines and their use is still limited. In particular, it remains unknown how stable the (default) FC habits are over time and how flexible they can be. To investigate these questions, 380 Polish participants completed a questionnaire on their FC routines, the stability of these routines, and the context of FC usage, preceded by the request to count on their fingers from 1 to 10. Next, the test–retest stability of FC habits was examined in 84 participants 2 months following the first session. To the best of our knowledge, such a study design has been adopted for the first time. The results indicate that default FC routines of the majority of participants (75%) are relatively stable over time. At the same time, FC routines can flexibly adapt according to the situation (e.g., when holding an object). As regards prevalence, almost all participants, in line with previous findings on Western individuals, declared starting from the closed palm and extending consecutive fingers. Furthermore, we observed relations between FC preferences and handedness (more left-handers start from the left hand) and that actual finger use is still widespread in healthy adults for a variety of activities (the most prevalent uses of FC are listing elements, presenting arguments and plans, and calendar calculations). In sum, the results show the practical relevance of FC in adulthood, the relative stability of preferences over time along with flexible adaptation to a current situation, as well as an association of FC routines with handedness. Taken together our results suggest that FC is the phenomenon, which is moderated or mediated by multiple embodied factors.

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Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain

Cited by 88 publications

References 39 publications

Exploring What Is Encoded in Distributional Word Vectors: A Neurobiologically Motivated Analysis

Exploring What Is Encoded in Distributional Word Vectors: A Neurobiologically Motivated Analysis

Overusing the pacifier during infancy sets a footprint on abstract words processing

A large-scale survey on finger counting routines, their temporal stability and flexibility in educated adults

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