Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Contours of time: Topographic construals of past, present, and future in the Yupno Valley of Papua New Guinea

by Kensy Cooperrider

Co-authored with Rafael Núñez, D Doan, and Jürg Wassmann

Time, an everyday yet fundamentally abstract domain, is conceptualized in terms of space throughout the world’s... more Time, an everyday yet fundamentally abstract domain, is conceptualized in terms of space throughout the world’s cultures. Linguists and psychologists have presented evidence of a widespread pattern in which deictic time—past, present, and future—is construed along the front/back axis, a construal that is linear and ego-based. To investigate the universality of this pattern, we studied the construal of deictic time among the Yupno, an indigenous group from the mountains of Papua New Guinea, whose language makes extensive use of allocentric topographic (uphill/downhill) terms for describing spatial relations. We measured the pointing direction of Yupno speakers’ gestures—produced naturally and without prompting—as they explained common expressions related to the past, present, and future. Results show that the Yupno spontaneously construe deictic time spatially in terms of allocentric topography: the past is construed as downhill, the present as co-located with the speaker, and the future as uphill. Moreover, the Yupno construal is not linear, but exhibits a particular geometry that appears to reflect the local terrain. The findings shed light on how, our universal human embodiment notwithstanding, linguistic, cultural, and environmental pressures come to shape abstract concepts.

Extra! Extra! Semantics in comics!: The conceptual structure of Chicago Tribune advertisements

by Neil Cohn

Recently, increasing attention is turning to comics as a graphic domain using similar cognitive processes to... more Recently, increasing attention is turning to comics as a graphic domain using similar cognitive processes to linguistic forms. As in the verbal and manual modalities of expression, various semantic structures arise across sequences of images in interesting and effective ways. This piece examines metonymy, conceptual metaphors, and blending across a three-panel pattern used in strips from an advertising campaign by the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

To judge a book by its weight you need to know its content: Knowledge moderates the use of embodied weight cues

by Jesse Chandler

Representation of categories: Metaphorical use of the container schema.

by Diane Pecher

Boot, I. & Pecher, D. (2011). Representation of categories: Metaphorical use of the container schema. Experimental Psychology, 58, 162-170.

In the present study we investigated whether the mental representation of the concept categories is represented by the... more In the present study we investigated whether the mental representation of the concept categories is represented by the container image schema (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). In two experiments participants decided whether two pictures were from the same category (animal or vehicle). Pictures were presented inside or outside a frame that should activate the container schema. We found that performance to pictures was
influenced by the frame in congruence with the metaphorical mapping (same category – inside bounded region; different category – not in same bounded region). These results show that the concept categories is metaphorically represented by containers.

Numbers in Space: Differences between concrete and abstract situations.

by Diane Pecher

Pecher, D., & Boot, I. (2011). Numbers in Space: Differences between concrete and abstract situations. Frontiers in Cognition, 2:121.

Mighty metaphors: Behavioral and ERP evidence that power shifts attention on a vertical dimension.

by Diane Pecher

Zanolie, K., Van Dantzig, S., Boot, I., Wijnen, J., Schubert, T. W, Giessner, S., & Pecher, D. (2012). Mighty metaphors: Behavioral and ERP evidence that power shifts attention on a vertical dimension. Brain and Cognition, 78, 50-58.

Thinking about the abstract concept power may automatically activate the spatial up-down image schema (powerful up;... more Thinking about the abstract concept power may automatically activate the spatial up-down image schema (powerful up; powerless down) and consequently direct spatial attention to the image schema-congruent location. Participants indicated whether a word represented a powerful or powerless person (e.g ‘king’ or ‘servant’). Following each decision, they identified a target at the top or bottom of the visual field. In Experiment 1 participants identified the target faster when their spatial position was congruent with the perceived power of the preceding word than when it was incongruent. In Experiment 2 ERPs showed a higher N1 amplitude for congruent spatial positions. These results support the view that attention is driven to the image schema congruent location of a power word. Thus, power is partially understood in terms of vertical space, which demonstrates that abstract concepts are grounded in sensory-motor processing.

Abstract concepts: Sensory-motor grounding, metaphors, and beyond.

by Diane Pecher

Pecher, D., Boot, I., & Van Dantzig, S. (2011). Abstract concepts: Sensory-motor grounding, metaphors, and beyond. In B. Ross (Ed.). The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, vol. 54 (pp. 217-248). Burlington: Academic Press.

In the last decade many researchers have obtained evidence for the idea that cognition shares processing mechanisms... more In the last decade many researchers have obtained evidence for the idea that cognition shares processing mechanisms with perception and action. Most of the evidence supporting the grounded cognition framework focused on representations of concrete concepts, which leaves open the question how abstract concepts are grounded in sensory-motor processing. One promising idea is that people simulate concrete situations and introspective experiences to represent abstract concepts [Barsalou, L. W., & Wiemer-Hastings, K. (2005). Situating abstract concepts. In D. Pecher, & R. A. Zwaan (Eds.), Grounding cognition: The role of perception and action in memory, language, and thinking (pp. 129–163). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.], although this has not yet been investigated a lot. A second idea, which more researchers have investigated, is that people use metaphorical mappings from concrete to abstract concepts [Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: Chicago University Press.]. According to this conceptual metaphor theory, image schemas structure and provide sensory-motor grounding for abstract concepts. Although there is evidence that people automatically activate image schemas when they process abstract concepts, we argue that situations are also needed to fully represent meaning.

Similarity is closeness: Metaphorical mapping in a conceptual task

by Diane Pecher

Boot, I. & Pecher, D. (2010) Similarity is closeness: Metaphorical mapping in a perceptual task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 942-954.

The conceptual metaphor theory states that abstract concepts are represented by image schemas from concrete domains.... more The conceptual metaphor theory states that abstract concepts are represented by image schemas from concrete domains. In the present study we investigated the mapping for SIMILARITY IS CLOSENESS using tasks with nonlinguistic materials. In Experiments 1 and 2 participants decided whether two squares were similar or dissimilar in colour. The spatial distance between the squares was varied. Performance to similar colours was better at shorter distances, whereas performance to dissimilar colours was better at longer distances. In Experiments 3 and 4 participants made distance decisions to similar and dissimilar colours squares. Performance was not affected by similarity. These results show that metaphorical mappings can be found even beyond the context of linguistic metaphors and that the mapping between SIMILARITY and CLOSENESS is
asymmetrical.

Lakoff and Johnson and the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor

by John Flood

Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society, (2008 for 2007) pp. 43-60

This article presents an account of metaphor derived from cognitive science, a comparatively recent discipline which... more This article presents an account of metaphor derived from cognitive science, a comparatively recent discipline which emerges at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and linguistics. It focuses on a model derived from George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By (1980). This is advanced here in a ‘maximal’ form, one which selects the strongest arguments for a cognitive model from the work of a number of authors. Additionally, the paper sketches the many philosophical implications claimed for the theory. Despite its impressive strengths a number of deficiencies in the model are highlighted and discussed.

Smoothing

by Richard Wilk

Published in 2006 as  “Smoothing.” In Off the Edge: Experiments in Cultural Analysis. Edited by Orvar Lofgren and Richard Wilk, Copenhagen:  Museum Tusculanum Press. Pp. 23-28.

Orvar Lofgren and I edited a collection on "Missing Cultural Processes" in which we asked participants to... more Orvar Lofgren and I edited a collection on "Missing Cultural Processes" in which we asked participants to think about culture in a creative way, and to find a label for something that everyone has seen, but nobody has a name for. This was my chapter in the book.

PhD Proposal - The Power of the Disclosive and the Limits of Reason in Language

by Adam Kimberley

A potential research project of mine. Any comments and suggestions would be more than welcome.

Caring for sharing: How attachment styles modulate communal cues of physical warmth

by Hans IJzerman

Co-authored with Johan Karremans, Lotte Thomsen, and Thomas Schubert. This article has been accepted for publication in Social Psychology, Special Issue on the Fundamental Dimensions of Social Perception. This paper has not yet been published; this copy may thus not reflect the final published copy of the article.

Does physical warmth lead to caring and sharing? Research suggests that it does; physically warm versus cold... more Does physical warmth lead to caring and sharing? Research suggests that it does; physically warm versus cold conditions induce pro-social behaviors and cognitions. Importantly, earlier research has not traced the developmental origins of the association between physical warmth and affection. The association between physical warmth and sharing may be captured in specific cognitive models of close social relations, often referred to as attachment styles. In line with this notion and using a dictator game set-up, the current study demonstrates that children who relate to their friends in the manner of a secure attachment style are more generous toward their peers in warm as compared to cold conditions. This effect was absent for children who relate to friends in the manner of an insecure attachment style, but, notably, these children not just always shared less: They allocated more stickers to a friend than to a stranger. These findings provide an important first step to understand how fundamental embodied relations develop early in life. We discuss broader implications for grounded cognition and person perception.

"Constructing Autopoiesis: The Architectural Body in Light of Contemporary Cognitive Science."

by Martin E. Rosenberg

_Interfaces: Image, Text, Language_ Special Issue: Architecture Against Death, edited by Jean-Michel Rabate.
http://college.holycross.edu/interfaces/vol21-22_articles/construct_autopoiesis.pdf

http://college.holycross.edu/interfaces/vol21-22_articles/construct_autopoiesis.pdf

Image schemas in film: Over de lichamelijke verankering van de verbeelding van abstracte begrippen

by Maarten Coëgnarts

Metaforen in de films van Jacques Tati: Een formele en conceptuele analyse

by Maarten Coëgnarts

De visuele en multimodale verbeelding van tijd in film: Of hoe tijd vorm krijgt in de ruimte

by Maarten Coëgnarts

Filmische dubbelgangers: Van conceptuele metafoor tot formele analyse

by Maarten Coëgnarts

Filmische metaforen in Buster Keatons kortfilms

by Maarten Coëgnarts

Van concept tot beeld: Een formele classificatie van filmische metaforen

by Maarten Coëgnarts

Metaphors in Buster Keaton’s Short Films

by Maarten Coëgnarts