Toward a theory of semantic representation

Vigliocco, Gabriella; Meteyard, Lotte; Andrews, Mark; Kousta, Stavroula

doi:10.1515/langcog.2009.011

Cited by 336 publications

(380 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…Many researchers from across the cognitive sciences have come to an interdisciplinary consensus that the human conceptual system comprises two different types of information: simulated and linguistic (Barsalou, Santos, Simmons, & Wilson, 2008;Connell & Lynott, 2014b;Louwerse & Jeuniaux, 2008;Vigliocco, Meteyard, Andrews, & Kousta, 2009). Simulated information (also known as grounded or embodied representations) emerges from our interactive experience with the world around us, and represents conceptual knowledge as a simulation (i.e., partial replay) in the same neural systems that are active in processing real-world perception and action (Allport, 1985;Barsalou, 1999;Connell & Lynott, 2014b;Glenberg & Gallese, 2012;Yee, Chrysikou, Hoffman, & Thompson-Schill, 2013).…”

Section: Concepts As Simulated and Linguistic Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…randomly distributed throughout the conceptual system? Several theories of conceptual representation now assume that abstract concepts are acquired via language, and are represented via linguistic information, to a greater extent than are concrete concepts (Borghi & Binkofski, 2014;Crutch & Warrington, 2005;Vigliocco et al, 2009). Linguistic information might be relatively more important to an abstract concept like democracy, for example, compared to a concrete concept like chair.…”

Section: Does Linguistic Information Simply Mirror Simulated Informatmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What have labels ever done for us? The linguistic shortcut in conceptual processing

Connell

2018

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

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How does language affect cognition? Is it important that most of our concepts come with linguistic labels, such as car or number? The statistical distributions of how such labels co-occur in language offers a rich medium of associative information that can support conceptual processing in a number of ways. In this article, I argue that the role of language in conceptual processing goes far beyond mere support, and that language is as fundamental and intrinsic a part of conceptual processing as sensorimotor-affective simulations. In particular, because linguistic association tends to be computationally cheaper than simulation (i.e., faster, less effortful, but still information-rich), it enables an heuristic mechanism that can provide adequate conceptual representation without the need to develop a detailed simulation. I review the evidence for this key mechanism -the linguistic shortcut -and propose that it allows labels to sometimes carry the burden of conceptual processing by acting in place of simulated referent meanings, according to context, available resources, and processing goals.Keywords: concepts, language, representation, linguistic distributional information, simulation LABELS IN CONCEPTUAL PROCESSING 3 What Have Labels Ever Done For Us? The Linguistic Shortcut in Conceptual ProcessingAll right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? (Life of Brian: Goldstone & Jones, 1979) A concept in long-term memory is an aggregate of experience that receives frequent attention and can be re-activated relatively easily in offline processing as an instantiated representation of the concept 1 (e.g., Connell & Lynott, 2014b). We mentally represent things that are present in the environment during online processing of real-world perception and action, and can represent them again in their absence during offline remembering, planning, and daydreaming (Wilson, 2002). As such, it seems reasonable that attaching a linguistic label to a particular aspect of experience could make it easier to perform some conceptual tasks, such as acquiring concepts like object kinds (Xu, 2002) and numbers (Carey, 2004), shaping the boundaries between colour categories (Winawer et al., 2007), or influencing how easily a visual feature or object is detected (Lupyan & Ward, 2013). Attaching a label to a bundle of experience may allow us to attend to it more easily in online processing, re-activate it more easily in offline processing, and hence help it cohere into a concept by assisting with abstraction (i.e., moving from a specific instance of sensorimotor experience to a generalised, aggregate form). However, the possibilities regarding language's role in cognition are more far-reaching than assisting concept learning or online perception. Rather than being peripheral to the "real" concept at hand and playing a supporting role in cognition, language could instead be an integral part of the...

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Section: Concepts As Simulated and Linguistic Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Does Linguistic Information Simply Mirror Simulated Informatmentioning

confidence: 99%

What have labels ever done for us? The linguistic shortcut in conceptual processing

Connell

2018

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

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“…Emotion One recent proposal (Vigliocco, Meteyard, Andrews, & Kousta, 2009) emphasized the role of emotional information as being central to the representation of abstract words. That is, emotion provides a means to ground abstract meaning in experience.…”

Section: Candidate Semantic Dimensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grasping the invisible: Semantic processing of abstract words

Zdrazilova

Pexman

2013

Psychon Bull Rev

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The problem of how abstract word meanings are represented has been a challenging one. In the present study, we extended the semantic richness approach (e.g., Yap, Tan, Pexman, & Hargreaves in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 18:742-750, 2011) to abstract words, examining the effects of six semantic richness variables on lexical-semantic processing for 207 abstract nouns. The candidate richness dimensions were context availability (CA), sensory experience rating (SER), valence, arousal, semantic neighborhood (SN), and number of associates (NoA). The behavioral tasks were lexical decision (LDT) and semantic categorization (SCT). Our results showed that the semantic richness variables were significantly related to both LDT and SCT latencies, even after lexical and orthographic factors were controlled. The patterns of richness effects varied across tasks, with CA effects in the LDT, and SER and valence effects in the SCT. These results provide new insight into how abstract meanings may be grounded, and are consistent with a dynamic, multidimensional framework for semantic processing.

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“…Applying embodiment theories however to abstract word processing is more problematic (see Chapter 2 for a more detailed discussion). Recent studies have explored the semantic representations associated with abstract concepts (Kousta et al, 2011;Shallice & Cooper, 2013;Vigliocco, Meteyard, Andrews, & Kousta, 2009). Vigliocco et al (2009) and Kousta et al (2011) proposed an extended theory of embodiment which includes abstract words.…”

Section: Theoretical Models Of Spoken Word Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies have explored the semantic representations associated with abstract concepts (Kousta et al, 2011;Shallice & Cooper, 2013;Vigliocco, Meteyard, Andrews, & Kousta, 2009). Vigliocco et al (2009) and Kousta et al (2011) proposed an extended theory of embodiment which includes abstract words. In this framework concrete concepts are embodied through experiential sensorimotor knowledge while abstract words are embodied through both linguistic and the underlying affective and emotional experiential knowledge associated specifically with abstract words (Kousta et al, 2011;Vigliocco et al, 2009).…”

Section: Theoretical Models Of Spoken Word Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurophysiological Markers of Language Recovery in Subacute Stroke

Roxbury¹

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Most patients with aphasia recover language function to some degree, but there is significant variability in the speed, nature, and extent of language recovery that occurs in the months following a stroke. Currently, there is no effective method available to predict how an individual with aphasia will recover. The most accurate predictors of recovery to date rely on global outcome measures which do not provide relevant information regarding recovery of symptoms that are targeted in therapy. The overall goal of this thesis was to examine whether language-related brain activity predicted recovery of specific symptoms in aphasia. The first aim was to gain a clearer understanding of the neural mechanisms which underpin word processing in healthy individuals.Brain activity associated with spoken word processing was investigated firstly in a group of healthy young adults, then in a healthy older cohort in order to ascertain whether task performance was preserved in ageing and if so, whether a preserved performance was underpinned by age-related changes in the neural mechanisms. The second main aim was to investigate the neural substrates which underpin language processing in the subacute (2-6 weeks) and chronic (6 months) phases of aphasia recovery and to determine whether the timing and extent to which these mechanisms are recruited contributes to a good or poor language outcome. An auditory lexical decision task with a novel pseudoword condition was employed to investigate language recovery mechanisms and was selected to ensure that patients with aphasia in the subacute stage would be able to perform the task with sufficient accuracy. The real word stimuli consisted of concrete and abstract items. The stimuli were presented in an event-related fMRI task to young healthy controls, older healthy controls, and patients with aphasia during the subacute and chronic phases post-stroke. A range of behavioural language measures was administered to all three cohorts and at both time points for patients with aphasia.In the healthy young group, concrete words elicited increased activity in a widely distributed network of brain regions including bilateral angular gyrus (AG), left posterior cingulate and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, compared to abstract words. Meanwhile, no region showed increased activity for abstract compared to concrete words, rather differences were only observed in bilateral AG when abstract words were contrasted with pseudowords. In the healthy older group, region of interest (ROI) results identified that a preserved performance was associated with an altered pattern of left hemisphere activity in the inferior and middle frontal regions, the AG and the fusiform gyrus.Differences between the healthy older and healthy young group were identified in key language regions, with the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) showing increased activity for abstract and pseudowords compared to concrete words while increased activity in the left AG was observed in the younger group only.ii In patients with a...

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Toward a theory of semantic representation

Cited by 336 publications

References 84 publications

What have labels ever done for us? The linguistic shortcut in conceptual processing

What have labels ever done for us? The linguistic shortcut in conceptual processing

Grasping the invisible: Semantic processing of abstract words

Neurophysiological Markers of Language Recovery in Subacute Stroke

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