University of Louisville, Louisville, USA.
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the Italian National Research Council (ISTC-CNR), Rome, Italy.
Psychol Res. 2022 Nov;86(8):2451-2467. doi: 10.1007/s00426-020-01438-6.
The role played by language in our cognitive lives is a topic at the centre of contemporary debates in cognitive (neuro)science. In this paper we illustrate and compare two theories that offer embodied explanations of this role: the WAT (words as social tools) and the LENS (language is an embodied neuroenhancement and scaffold) theories. WAT and LENS differ from other current proposals, because they connect the impact of the neurologically realized language system on our cognition to the ways in which language shapes our interaction with the physical and social environment. Examining these theories together, their tenets and supporting evidence, sharpens our understanding of each, but also contributes to a better understanding of the contribution that language might make to the acquisition, representation and use of abstract concepts. Here we focus on how language provides a source of inner grounding, especially metacognition and inner speech, and supports the flexibility of our thought. Overall, the paper outlines a promising research program focused on the importance of language to abstract concepts within the context of a flexible, multimodal, and multilevel conception of embodied cognition.
语言在我们认知生活中所扮演的角色是认知（神经）科学当代辩论的核心主题。在本文中，我们将举例说明并比较两种提供语言作用的具身解释的理论：WAT（语言作为社会工具）和 LENS（语言是一种具身的神经增强和支架）理论。WAT 和 LENS 与其他当前的提议不同，因为它们将神经系统实现的语言系统对我们认知的影响与语言塑造我们与物理和社会环境相互作用的方式联系起来。同时考察这些理论、它们的原则和支持证据，不仅可以更深入地理解每一种理论，还可以帮助我们更好地理解语言可能对抽象概念的习得、表现和使用做出的贡献。在这里，我们重点关注语言如何提供内在基础，特别是元认知和内部言语，并支持我们思维的灵活性。总的来说，本文概述了一个很有前景的研究计划，该计划侧重于语言在具身认知的灵活、多模态和多层次概念背景下对抽象概念的重要性。
