Psychology Department, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Top Cogn Sci. 2018 Jul;10(3):501-517. doi: 10.1111/tops.12311. Epub 2017 Dec 7.
To explain how abstract concepts are grounded in sensory-motor experiences, several theories have been proposed. I will discuss two of these proposals, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Situated Cognition, and argue why they do not fully explain grounding. A central idea in Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that image schemas ground abstract concepts in concrete experiences. Image schemas might themselves be abstractions, however, and therefore do not solve the grounding problem. Moreover, image schemas are too simple to explain the full richness of abstract concepts. Situated cognition might provide such richness. Research in our laboratory, however, has shown that even for concrete concepts, sensory-motor grounding is task dependent. Therefore, it is questionable whether abstract concepts can be significantly grounded in sensory-motor processing.
为了解释抽象概念如何基于感觉运动经验，已经提出了几种理论。我将讨论其中的两个提议，概念隐喻理论和情境认知，并论证它们为什么不能完全解释基础。概念隐喻理论的一个核心思想是，意象图式将抽象概念建立在具体经验之上。然而，意象图式本身可能就是抽象的，因此并不能解决基础问题。此外，意象图式过于简单，无法解释抽象概念的全部丰富性。情境认知可能会提供这种丰富性。然而，我们实验室的研究表明，即使是对于具体概念，感觉运动基础也是依赖于任务的。因此，抽象概念是否能在感觉运动处理中得到显著的基础，这是值得怀疑的。
