Zarzeczna Natalia, Bertlich Tisa, Rutjens Bastiaan T, Gerstner Ida, von Hecker Ulrich
University of Essex, Colchester, UK.
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
R Soc Open Sci. 2024 Nov 6;11(11):240985. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240985. eCollection 2024 Nov.
The experience of meaning has been found to be mapped onto spatial proximity whereby coherent-in contrast to incoherent-elements in a set are mentally represented as closer together in physical space. In a series of four experiments, we show that spatial representation of coherence is malleable and can employ other meaningful concrete dimensions of space that are made salient. When given task instructions cueing verticality, participants represented coherence in the upper vertical location when making judgements about the logical validity of realistic (Experiments 1 and 4) and unrealistic syllogistic scenarios (Experiment 3). When the task instruction made the spatial proximity between the stimuli materials and the participant salient (subjective proximity), participants represented coherence as spatially close to themselves (Experiment 2). We also found that being accurate in judging the validity of syllogisms was associated with representing coherence in the upper visual field or close to oneself. Overall, our findings show that identifying semantic links between an abstract concept and a given spatial dimension involves using that dimension to create spatial metaphoric mappings of the concept.
意义体验已被发现映射到空间接近度上，即一组连贯（与不连贯相对）的元素在心理上被表征为在物理空间中彼此更接近。在一系列四项实验中，我们表明连贯性的空间表征具有可塑性，并且可以利用其他显著的有意义的具体空间维度。当给予提示垂直性的任务指令时，参与者在判断现实（实验1和4）和非现实三段论情景（实验3）的逻辑有效性时，将连贯性表征在上部垂直位置。当任务指令使刺激材料与参与者之间的空间接近度变得显著（主观接近度）时，参与者将连贯性表征为在空间上靠近自己（实验2）。我们还发现，准确判断三段论的有效性与在上部视野或靠近自己的位置表征连贯性有关。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，识别抽象概念与给定空间维度之间的语义联系涉及使用该维度来创建该概念的空间隐喻映射。
