17.2845, Diss: Psycholing/Cognitive Science: Kranjec: 'Extending Spatial Fra...'

[LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List: Vol-17-2845. Sun Oct 01 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.2845, Diss: Psycholing/Cognitive Science: Kranjec: 'Extending Spatial Fra...'

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews: Laura Welcher, Rosetta Project / Long Now Foundation  
         <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales <hannah at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.


===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 01-Oct-2006
From: Alexander Kranjec < akranjec at brooklyn.cuny.edu >
Subject: Extending Spatial Frames of Reference to Temporal Concepts: An embodied perspective 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 12:55:08
From: Alexander Kranjec < akranjec at brooklyn.cuny.edu >
Subject: Extending Spatial Frames of Reference to Temporal Concepts: An embodied perspective 
 


Institution: City University of New York 
Program: Experimental Psychology 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2006 

Author: Alexander Kranjec

Dissertation Title: Extending Spatial Frames of Reference to Temporal Concepts: 
An embodied perspective 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
                     Psycholinguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Benzion Chanowitz
Frank Grasso
Aaron Kozbelt
Laraine McDonough
Katherine Nelson

Dissertation Abstract:

Three experiments investigate relations among spatial and temporal
cognition, embodied experience and language.  Experiment 1A uses vertical
spatial primes and an ambiguous temporal question ("Next Wednesday's
meeting has been moved forward two days") to test how time concepts could
be constrained by the structure of spatial concepts.  Vertical spatial
orientation was found to influence temporal thinking in ways inconsistent
with previous research using horizontal primes.  Experiment 1B introduces a
new ambiguous question that is more abstract and culturally neutral than
the original, finding it to be similarly ambiguous in its capacity to
produce "earlier" or "later" responses to suggestions of forward motion. 
The result is taken as further evidence that sequential temporal relations
can be represented spatially without reference to an ego, suggesting that
answers to the original ambiguous question about Wednesday's meeting can
similarly be derived.  The next section examines tripartite systems that
are currently common to several theories concerned with spatial frames of
reference distinctions.  After reviewing three basic spatial frame of
reference types, the results of recent empirical work investigating
temporal metaphor is applied to a theoretical temporal frame of reference
model.  The concept of an extrinsic temporal frame of reference is
introduced and supported by Experiments 2A-C.  The last section argues that
embodied views of cognition are important because they offer possible
solutions to the long-standing symbol grounding problem.  Experiment 3
investigates how implicit embodied representations interact with linguistic
concepts accessible to explicit awareness, and how these relations generate
meaning.  A novel method is introduced in which participants are asked to
guess the location of picture tiles hidden in boxes placed in front or
behind them (3A) or to their left or right (3B).  Results demonstrate that
in some instances guessing was assisted by the relative spatial locations
of the boxes as concordant with the structure of particular temporal
concepts.  The pattern of results also suggests an interesting dynamic
between implicit and explicit processes in the organization of abstract
concepts and semantic representation.  The discussion that follows explores
how embodied and distributed implicit representations serve to ground more
localized meanings (lexemes) in forms accessible to consciousness. 




-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-17-2845