The DOI matches its Crossref record; 143 of the 143 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The representation of abstract words: Why emotion matters.
Abstract
Although much is known about the representation and processing of concrete concepts, knowledge of what abstract semantics might be is severely limited. In this article we first address the adequacy of the 2 dominant accounts (dual coding theory and the context availability model) put forward in order to explain representation and processing differences between concrete and abstract words. We find that neither proposal can account for experimental findings and that this is, at least partly, because abstract words are considered to be unrelated to experiential information in both of these accounts. We then address a particular type of experiential information, emotional content, and demonstrate that it plays a crucial role in the processing and representation of abstract concepts: Statistically, abstract words are more emotionally valenced than are concrete words, and this accounts for a residual latency advantage for abstract words, when variables such as imageability (a construct derived from dual coding theory) and rated context availability are held constant. We conclude with a discussion of our novel hypothesis for embodied abstract semantics.
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1 retracted
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Norms of valence, arousal, and dominance for 13,915 English lemmas
Warriner, A. B., Kuperman, V., & Brysbaert, M. (2013) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/s13428-012-0314-x · Cited by 1,959
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How neurons make meaning: brain mechanisms for embodied and abstract-symbolic semantics
Pulvermüller, F. (2013) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.004 · Cited by 631
Toward a brain-based componential semantic representation
Binder, J. R., Conant, L. L., Humphries, C. J., Fernandino, L., Simons, S. B., Aguilar, M., & Desai, R. H. (2016) · Cognitive Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/02643294.2016.1147426 · Cited by 367
Words as social tools: language, sociality and inner grounding in abstract concepts
Borghi, A. M., Barca, L., Binkofski, F., Castelfranchi, C., Pezzulo, G., & Tummolini, L. (2019) · Physics of Life Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2018.12.001 · Cited by 253
Metadata
- Authors
- Kousta, S.-T., Vigliocco, G., Vinson, D. P., Andrews, M., & Del Campo, E.
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Published
- 2011
- Volume
- 140
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 14-34
- ISSN
- 0096-3445 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2222
- OpenAlex
- W1969138120
- Cited by
- 894
- References
- 143
- FWCI
- 11.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Kousta, S.-T., Vigliocco, G., Vinson, D. P., Andrews, M., & Del Campo, E. (2011). The representation of abstract words: Why emotion matters. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021446
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