The allocation of valenced concepts onto 3D space

The valence–space metaphor research area investigates the metaphorical mapping of valenced concepts onto space. Research findings from this area indicate that positive, neutral, and negative concepts are associated with upward, midward, and downward locations, respectively, in the vertical plane. The same research area has also indicated that such concepts seem to have no preferential location on the horizontal plane. The approach–avoidance effect consists in decreasing the distance between positive stimuli and the body (i.e. approach) and increasing the distance between negative stimuli and the body (i.e. avoid). Thus, the valence–space metaphor accounts for the mapping of valenced concepts onto the vertical and horizontal planes, and the approach–avoidance effect accounts for the mapping of valenced concepts onto the “depth” plane. By using a cube conceived for the study of allocation of valenced concepts onto 3D space, we show in three studies that positive concepts are placed in upward locations and near the participants’ body, negative concepts are placed in downward locations and far from the participants’ body, and neutral concepts are placed in between these concepts in both planes.     

Hand Position and Response Assignment Modulate the Activation of the Valence‐Space Conceptual Metaphor

Conceptual metaphor is ubiquitous in language and thought, as we usually reason and talk about abstract concepts in terms of more concrete ones via metaphorical mappings that are hypothesized to arise from our embodied experience. One pervasive example is the conceptual projection of valence onto space, which flexibly recruits the vertical and lateral spatial frames to gain structure (e.g., good is up ‐bad is down and good is right ‐bad is left ). In the current study, we used a valence judgment task to explore the role that exogenous bodily cues (namely response hand positions) play in the allocation of spatial attention and the modulation of conceptual congruency effects. Experiment 1 showed that congruency effects along the vertical axis are weakened when task conditions (i.e., the use of vertical visual cues, on the one hand, and the horizontal alignment of responses, on the other) draw attention to both the vertical and lateral axes making them simultaneously salient. Experiment 2 evidenced that the vertical alignment of participants’ hands while responding to the task—regardless of the location of their dominant hand—facilitates the judgment of positive and negative‐valence words, as long as participants respond in a metaphor–congruent manner (i.e., up responses are good and down responses are bad). Overall, these results support the claim that source domain representations are dynamically activated in response to the context and that bodily states are an integral part of that context.     

语言和情境对具体概念感知运动仿真的影响

具体概念加工中的感知运动仿真是概念表征的核心加工过程。本研究系统探讨了语言因素(语言类型：第一语言和第二语言)和情境因素(知觉情境：空间知觉情境和语义知觉情境)对具体概念加工中感知运动仿真的影响。实验1采用语义相关判断范式探讨了第二语言加工过程中是否存在感知运动仿真, 以及第二语言中的仿真和第一语言中的仿真是否存在差异。研究发现, 第二语言加工中依然存在感知运动仿真, 但是第一语言的感知运动仿真具有一定的优势。实验2采用语义相关判断范式及其变式, 通过2个分实验分别探讨了个体加工概念时空间知觉信息和语义知觉信息对于概念表征过程中感知运动仿真的影响。研究发现, 无论是在较弱的空间信息知觉条件下还是在较浅的语义信息知觉条件下, 具体概念加工过程中都产生了感知运动仿真。本研究的发现弥补了知觉符号理论未对第二语言中的感知运动仿真提出针对性预测的不足, 表明感知运动仿真具有一定的跨语言稳定性。同时, 具体概念加工中的感知运动仿真不受空间信息和语义信息的调节, 这表明感知运动仿真能在一定程度上自动化产生。     

内藏班高中生对国内外民族的容器隐喻、群际态度和助人倾向

中华民族共同体作为一种高层级的共同内群体, 性质复杂、构成多元。将中华民族共同体和共同内群体认同模型相结合, 是研究中华民族共同体认同的有效途径。本研究以国内不同民族及其成员表征中华民族共同内群体, 以国外不同民族及其成员表征共同外群体, 通过3个实验考察内藏班高中生对国内外民族的容器隐喻、群际态度和助人倾向。实验1采用空间Stroop范式, 发现国内民族人名呈现在圈内的反应时显著短于呈现在圈外时, 国外民族人名呈现在圈外时的反应时显著短于呈现在圈内时, 说明内藏班高中生已经建构了中华民族共同内群体认知, 将国内民族成员置于容器内, 将国外民族成员置于容器外; 实验2通过启动Stroop范式发现, 当启动词是国内民族名称时, 对积极词的词性判断反应时显著短于对消极词; 当启动词是国外民族名称时, 对消极词的词性判断反应时显著短于对积极词, 说明内藏班高中生对国内民族存在着共同内群体偏爱, 对国外民族存在着共同外群体偏见; 实验3采用金钱和时间助人任务, 发现内藏班高中生捐赠给国内民族成员的金钱和时间均显著多于国外民族成员, 说明内藏班高中生对国内民族成员具有更强的助人意愿。整个研究表明, 具有丰富的跨民族交往、跨文化生活经验的内藏班高中生在共同内群体认知、共同内群体偏爱和对共同内群体成员的帮助倾向上, 均展现出对中华民族共同体的认同。     

Multi-day Adaptation and Savings in Manual and Locomotor Tasks

Using an individual differences approach, we evaluated whether manual and locomotor adaptation are associated in terms of adaptation and savings across days, and whether they rely on shared underlying mechanisms involving visuospatial working memory or visual field dependence. Participants performed a manual and a locomotor adaptation task during 4 separate test sessions over a 3-month period. Reliable adaptation and savings were observed for both tasks. It was further found that higher visuospatial working memory performance and lower visual field dependence scores were associated with faster learning in the manual and locomotor tasks, respectively. Moreover, adaptation rates were correlated between the 2 tasks in the final test session, suggesting that people may gradually be learning something generalizable about the adaptation process.     

Moral Tuning

Can a set of musical metaphors in a treatise on ethics reveal something about the nature and source of moral autonomy? This article argues that it can. It shows how metaphorical usage of words like tone, pitch , and concord in Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments can be understood as elements of an analogical model for morality. What this model tells us about morality depends on how we conceptualise music. In contrast to earlier interpretations of Smith's metaphors that have seen music as an aesthetic object, this article sees music as a practice. Understood in this way, the analogy allows us to see morality too as a practice––as moral tuning . This in turn reveals a novel answer to the intractable problem of conventionalism: moral autonomy consists in the freedom inherent in the constant need to interpret and reinterpret the strictly formal ideal of perfect propriety.     

“心灵鸡汤”对温度知觉、他人评价和自我评价的影响

本研究基于具身认知观点和概念隐喻理论,采用三个实验探讨了 “心灵鸡汤”对环境温度的感知觉影响、对陌生他人人品评价的影响以及对自我人格特质评定的影响。结果发现,“心灵鸡汤”的阅读能有效提高个体对环境温度的评定,且不存在性别差异;阅读“心灵鸡汤”后倾向于对陌生人的人品有更高的积极评定;“心灵鸡汤”对自我评定不存在显著影响。     

Metamorphosis and the aesthetics of loss: I. Mourning Daphne--the Apollo and Daphne paintings of Nicolas Poussin

The myth of Apollo and Daphne, as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is viewed through the self‐referential eye of the seicento painter, Nicolas Poussin. Collectively, the tree‐metaphoric myths are argued to metaphorically represent, mourn, and negate unbearable realities, including the developmental challenges of adolescence and adulthood – in particular, loss. Examined in the context of their aesthetic precedents and a close reading of Ovid ’s text, the two Apollo and Daphne paintings that bracket Poussin’s oeuvre are interpreted as conveying the conflict and ambiguity inherent to Ovid, as well as connotations more personal to the artist. The poetic and aesthetic reworking of the regressive, magical experience of metamorphosis restores it to the symbolic world of metaphor: for reparation, remembrance, and return.     

Embodied metaphor and the “true” self: Priming entity expansion and protection influences intrinsic self-expressions in self-perceptions and interpersonal behavior

Drawing on conceptual metaphor perspectives and embodied cognition theories, we proposed that the intrinsic self-concept-who people think they truly are-is represented metaphorically as a physical entity, and that expressions of the intrinsic self-concept are therefore conceptualized in terms of entity activity. Using an empirical strategy for experimentally investigating conceptual metaphor, we tested whether exposure to pictorial primes depicting entity expansion and protection produces metaphor-consistent effects on self-perceptions and interpersonal behaviors expressive of the intrinsic self-concept. In Study 1, participants primed with entity expansion perceived themselves as more self-actualized and less concerned with satisfying extrinsic contingencies of self-esteem. Study 2 showed that this effect was mediated by the increased accessibility of the concept entity expansion. In Study 3, expansion-primed participants conformed less to other people's opinions. In Study 4, participants primed with entity protection were less willing to disclose intimate, but not non-intimate, self-knowledge to a stranger.