Embodied Cognition

Front 1

Strack et al. (1998)

Back 1

Participants were asked to place a pencil in either their teeth or their mouths. This activates the muscles used in either frowning (CORRUGATOR SUPERCILLI) or smiling (ZYGOMATIC MAJOR).

Participants allocated to the smiling condition showed significantly increased positive judgements than those in the frowning condition. Thus, the physical response effected cognitive appraisal. The phenomenon is termed the Strack Effect.

Front 2

Bargh, Chen and Burrows (1996)

Back 2

Bargh, Chen and Burrows (1996)

Participants were asked to sort words associated with old age i.e florida, wise, wrinkle. Upon completing the task participants walking speed leaving the laboratory was used as the dependant variable for the study. It was revealed that those whom had been primed with words associated with the elderly took 1 second longer to leave the lab than those in the non-elderly associated words group.

Front 3

Williams and Bargh (2008)

Back 3

Using an independent groups design participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups; either holding a warm cup of coffee or holding a cold cup of coffee.

Participants, whilst holding the cup, were then asked to judge how trustworthy a confederate was. Those holding the 'warm' cup were more likely to judge the confederate as 'trustworthy'.

Front 4

Hauk, Johnsrude and Pulvermuller (2004)

Back 4

Participants were placed in an fMRI scanner. Firstly, they were asked to move their tongues, feet and fingers to pinpoint the somatotopic regions in the brain. Participants then read action verbs such as 'kick', 'lick' and 'pick' during which the brain regions were recorded.

The researchers found that the brain areas associated with the particular physical movement were active when the word was administered meaning that brain areas about movement correspond with areas of actual movement.

Front 5

Miles, Nind and Macrea (2010)

Back 5

Conducted a study titled 'Moving Through Time' in which the researchers asked participants to think about the past. Participants 'back leaning' was used as the dependant measure which revealed that thinking about the past can cause people to lean backwards.

Front 6

Meyer-Lindenberg (2008)

Back 6

Established that the dorsal posterior INSULA is active when you are physically 'warm'. However, when testing emotional 'warmth' it became apparent that this area within the brain was also active. Thus emotions are embodied within the brain.

Front 7

Lakoff and Johnson (1979)

Back 7

Published the influences works 'Metaphors to live by' on embodied cognition which claimed we used metaphors for human emotion which are physical events. Thus broadly speaking that human emotion is an embodied experience.

For example, 'being DOWN in the dumps', 'feeling UP' or 'feeling and ELECTRIC SPARK'. Thus experiencing human emotion is an embodied process which we understand from our experience with the world.

Front 8

Beilock et al. (2008)

Back 8

Hockey plays and fans were recruited and compared against hockey novices. All participants were placed in an fMRI scanner and brain regions were recorded.

Participants read everyday actions and action associated with hockey and competency was measure by sentence-picture verification task. The study revealed that action expertise lead to more premotor activation (premotor activation was also correlated with better comprehension).

Front 9

Witt and Proffitt (2005)

Witt, Proffitt and Epstein (2004)

Back 9

Studied 'softball' players. Found that those who perceived the ball as bigger hit better.

Those who throw a heavy ball perceive the target to be further away than those who throw a light ball.

Front 10

Bak et al. (2001; 2006)

Boulenger (2008)

Pulvermuller et al. (2005)

Back 10

These studies show direct deficit to action understanding.

- Motor Neuron Disease- overall language deficit with verb specific impairment.

- Parkinsons. P's complete lexical semantic task On and OFF meds (levodopa: alleviates motor impairment). Words are primed - facilitates word ID - Nurses and Drs. NOT FOR LEVODOPA PATIENTS.

- Temporary TMS

Front 11

Cotelli et al. (2007)

Back 11

Parkinson's patients and controls asked to name objects and actions. The study revealed that parkinson patients have a difficulty for ACTION VERBS.

Front 12

Angrave and Glenberg (2007)

Back 12

Found that in human infants action learning reliably predicts world learning.

Front 13

Boncoddo et al. (2010)

Back 13

Applied action learning to preschoolers in the classroom. The researchers taught the abstract concept of gears or cogs to the children and the physics of the rotation- if one moves clocks the other must move anti-clockwise.

The researchers found that more 'force training' equated to more 'alternation behaviour' and this lead to better accuracy. Thus children who used their hands to symbolise gears learned the concept faster. It is concluded that action predicts learning.

Front 14

Glenberg et al. (2004)

Back 14

Children read a story about a farmer. In the control condition children read the story twice. Within the experimental condition either; periodically manipulated toys to 'act-out' the story OR periodically imagined what happened.

Comprehension abilities were measured pre and post (6 weeks after intervention). Concluded action learning allows significantly better recall than hearing the story twice.