TY - GEN A1 - Hartmann, Matthias A1 - Mast, Fred W. A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Spatial biases during mental arithmetic BT - evidence from eye movements on a blank screen T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - While the influence of spatial-numerical associations in number categorization tasks has been well established, their role in mental arithmetic is less clear. It has been hypothesized that mental addition leads to rightward and upward shifts of spatial attention (along the "mental number line"), whereas subtraction leads to leftward and downward shifts. We addressed this hypothesis by analyzing spontaneous eye movements during mental arithmetic. Participants solved verbally presented arithmetic problems (e.g., 2 + 7, 8-3) aloud while looking at a blank screen. We found that eye movements reflected spatial biases in the ongoing mental operation: Gaze position shifted more upward when participants solved addition compared to subtraction problems, and the horizontal gaze position was partly determined by the magnitude of the operands. Interestingly, the difference between addition and subtraction trials was driven by the operator (plus vs. minus) but was not influenced by the computational process. Thus, our results do not support the idea of a mental movement toward the solution during arithmetic but indicate a semantic association between operation and space. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 426 KW - mental arithmetic KW - eye movements KW - mental number line KW - operational momentum KW - embodied cognition KW - grounded cognition Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406504 IS - 426 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gottwald, Janna M. A1 - Elsner, Birgit A1 - Pollatos, Olga T1 - Good is up-spatial metaphors in action observation T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Positive objects or actions are associated with physical highness, whereas negative objects or actions are related to physical lowness. Previous research suggests that metaphorical connection ("good is up" or "bad is down") between spatial experience and evaluation of objects is grounded in actual experience with the body. Prior studies investigated effects of spatial metaphors with respect to verticality of either static objects or self-performed actions. By presenting videos of object placements, the current three experiments combined vertically-located stimuli with observation of vertically-directed actions. As expected, participants' ratings of emotionally-neutral objects were systematically influenced by the observed vertical positioning, that is, ratings were more positive for objects that were observed being placed up as compared to down. Moreover, effects were slightly more pronounced for "bad is down," because only the observed downward, but not the upward, action led to different ratings as compared to a medium-positioned action. Last, some ratings were even affected by observing only the upward/downward action, without seeing the final vertical placement of the object. Thus, both, a combination of observing a vertically-directed action and seeing a vertically-located object, and observing a vertically-directed action alone, affected participants' evaluation of emotional valence of the involved object. The present findings expand the relevance of spatial metaphors to action observation, thereby giving new impetus to embodied-cognition research. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 422 KW - embodied cognition KW - spatial metaphors KW - emotional valence KW - action observation KW - action perception Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406281 IS - 422 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Sixtus, Elena A1 - Göbel, Silke M. T1 - Commentary BT - a pointer about grasping numbers T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - kein Abstract vorhanden T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 420 KW - numerical cognition KW - embodied cognition KW - gestures KW - numeracy training KW - mathematical cognition Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406260 IS - 420 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lobmaier, Janek S. A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Facial Feedback Affects Perceived Intensity but Not Quality of Emotional Expressions N2 - Motivated by conflicting evidence in the literature, we re-assessed the role of facial feedback when detecting quantitative or qualitative changes in others’ emotional expressions. Fifty-three healthy adults observed self-paced morph sequences where the emotional facial expression either changed quantitatively (i.e., sad-to-neutral, neutral-to-sad, happy-to-neutral, neutral-to-happy) or qualitatively (i.e. from sad to happy, or from happy to sad). Observers held a pen in their own mouth to induce smiling or frowning during the detection task. When morph sequences started or ended with neutral expressions we replicated a congruency effect: Happiness was perceived longer and sooner while smiling; sadness was perceived longer and sooner while frowning. Interestingly, no such congruency effects occurred for transitions between emotional expressions. These results suggest that facial feedback is especially useful when evaluating the intensity of a facial expression, but less so when we have to recognize which emotion our counterpart is expressing. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 302 KW - embodied cognition KW - emotional expression KW - emotion recognition KW - facial feedback KW - face morphing Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-96428 SP - 357 EP - 368 ER -