Gottwald Janna M, Elsner Birgit, Pollatos Olga
Department of Psychology, Uppsala University , Uppsala, Sweden.
Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam , Potsdam, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2015 Oct 20;6:1605. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01605. eCollection 2015.
Positive objects or actions are associated with physical highness, whereas negative objects or actions are related to physical lowness. Previous research suggests that metaphorical connection ("good is up" or "bad is down") between spatial experience and evaluation of objects is grounded in actual experience with the body. Prior studies investigated effects of spatial metaphors with respect to verticality of either static objects or self-performed actions. By presenting videos of object placements, the current three experiments combined vertically-located stimuli with observation of vertically-directed actions. As expected, participants' ratings of emotionally-neutral objects were systematically influenced by the observed vertical positioning, that is, ratings were more positive for objects that were observed being placed up as compared to down. Moreover, effects were slightly more pronounced for "bad is down," because only the observed downward, but not the upward, action led to different ratings as compared to a medium-positioned action. Last, some ratings were even affected by observing only the upward/downward action, without seeing the final vertical placement of the object. Thus, both, a combination of observing a vertically-directed action and seeing a vertically-located object, and observing a vertically-directed action alone, affected participants' evaluation of emotional valence of the involved object. The present findings expand the relevance of spatial metaphors to action observation, thereby giving new impetus to embodied-cognition research.
积极的事物或行为与身体上的高相关联，而消极的事物或行为则与身体上的低相关。先前的研究表明，空间体验与物体评价之间的隐喻联系（“好在上”或“坏在下”）基于身体的实际体验。先前的研究调查了空间隐喻对静态物体或自我执行动作的垂直性的影响。通过展示物体放置的视频，当前的三个实验将垂直定位的刺激与对垂直方向动作的观察结合起来。正如预期的那样，参与者对情绪中性物体的评分受到观察到的垂直位置的系统影响，也就是说，与向下放置的物体相比，观察到向上放置的物体时评分更积极。此外，“坏在下”的影响更为明显，因为与中等位置的动作相比，只有观察到向下的动作，而不是向上的动作，才会导致不同的评分。最后，一些评分甚至仅受观察向上/向下动作的影响，而未看到物体最终的垂直放置。因此，观察垂直方向的动作并看到垂直放置的物体，以及仅观察垂直方向的动作，都会影响参与者对所涉及物体的情感效价的评价。本研究结果扩展了空间隐喻与动作观察的相关性，从而为具身认知研究提供了新的动力。
