关键词: 概念表征, 语义表征具身理论, 情绪经验信息, 情绪效价

Abstract: Conceptual representation is a hot topic of cognitive science, how abstract concepts are represented is one of the controversial issues for embodied cognition. Although much is known about the representation and processing of concrete concepts, knowledge of what abstract semantics might be is severely limited. Up to the present, research into semantic and conceptual representation has focused almost exclusively on how concrete word meanings and concepts are represented and processed, to the exclusion of abstract word meanings and concepts. However, the ability to communicate through language about abstract concepts, such as “courage,” “dignity,” and “revenge,” lies at the heart of what it means to be human, and no theory of semantic or conceptual representation is complete without an explicit account of how abstract knowledge is acquired, represented, and processed. The Metaphor Representation Theory proposed that abstract concepts are viewed as originating in ‘‘image schemas’’ (i.e. the use of a concrete conceptual domain of knowledge to describe an abstract conceptual domain). For example English consistently uses language concerning “throwing and catching” to describe “communication of ideas”. The Perceptual Symbols Theory proposed that abstract concepts are represented by multimodal mental simulations and are more likely than concrete concepts to be framed against events unfolding over time, to involve introspection, and to require focusing of attention on specific aspects of the event simulation. In short, these two theory suppose that ‘‘image schemas’’ or “situations” contributes to the representation and processing of abstract concepts. In contrast, Embodied Theory of Semantic Representation proposed by Vigliocco et al. (2009) supposes that “emotional experiential information” plays a crucial role in the representation and processing of abstract concepts. A core and novel element of this proposal is the idea that both concrete and abstract concepts bind different types of information: experiential information (sensory, motor, and emotional/affective) and also linguistic information. However, concrete and abstract semantic representations differ in terms of whether sensory, motor, or emotional information have the greatest weight, with sensory-motor information being more preponderant for concrete concepts and emotional information playing a greater role for abstract concepts. In a word, differences between concrete and abstract concepts arise as a result of the proportion and exact type of experiential and linguistic information from which they are derived. Concrete concepts are grounded in our sensory–motor experience, emotional experience is crucial in the grounding of abstract concepts. Recent studies provide evidences that abstract words contain more emotional information than concrete words. Some behavioral and fMRI results indicate that the processing of abstract words is facilitated by their more emotional associations and abstract words engage the affective system by virtue of having more affective associations than concrete words (Vigliocco et al., 2014).Crucially, Kousta et al. (2011) found that the processing advantage for abstract words was due to differences in emotional valence (whether the words have positive, negative, or neutral) between concrete and abstract words. These researches suggest that the critical role of emotional experiential information underlying abstract words is influenced by their emotional valence. Thus, future studies should focus on the factors of emotion experiential information in the processing of words, such as the richness of linguistic information, emotional arousal or individual's emotional state.

Key words: conceptual representation, embodiment views of semantic representation, emotion experiential information, emotional valence