TY - JOUR A1 - Gianelli, Claudia A1 - Lugli, Luisa A1 - Baroni, Giulia A1 - Nicoletti, Roberto A1 - Borghi, Anna M. T1 - The impact of social context and language comprehension on behaviour - a kinematic investigation JF - PLoS one N2 - We investigated whether and how comprehending sentences that describe a social context influences our motor behaviour. Our stimuli were sentences that referred to objects having different connotations (e.g., attractive/ugly vs smooth/prickly) and that could be directed towards the self or towards "another person" target (e The object is ugly/smooth. Bring it to you/Give it to another person"). Participants judged whether each sentence was sensible or non-sensible by moving the mouse towards or away from their body. Mouse movements were analysed according to behavioral and kinematics parameters. In order to enhance the social meaning of the linguistic stimuli, participants performed the task either individually (Individual condition) or in a social setting, in co-presence with the experimenter. The experimenter could either act as a mere observer (Social condition) or as a confederate, interacting with participants in an off-line modality at the end of task execution (Joint condition), Results indicated that the different roles taken by the experimenter affected motor behaviour and are discussed within an embodied approach to language processing and joint actions. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085151 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 8 IS - 12 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gianelli, Claudia A1 - Ranzini, Mariagrazia A1 - Marzocchi, Michele A1 - Micheli, Leticia Rettore A1 - Borghi, Anna M. T1 - Influence of numerical magnitudes on the free choice of an object position JF - Cognitive processing : international quarterly of cognitive science N2 - The link between numerical magnitude and mechanisms of spatial orienting has been underlined in an increasing number of studies. Similarly, the relationship between numerical magnitude and grasping actions has started to be investigated. The present study focuses on the influence of numerical magnitude processing in the free choice of the position of an object. Participants were presented with a digit (1-9 without 5) and were required to decide whether it was smaller or larger than 5. Then, they had to grasp a small cube and change its position before vocally responding "higher" or "lower". Results showed that in the initial phase of the grasp movement, the grip aperture was modulated by the numerical magnitude. Moreover, participants shifted the position of the cube more leftward with smaller digits compared with larger ones, and they tended to position the object closer to themselves with smaller digits compared with larger ones. These results extend the previous findings indicating that the processing of magnitude is tightly related to the mechanisms of spatial orienting that subserve action execution. KW - Spatial-numerical associations KW - Magnitude processing KW - Hand kinematics KW - Embodied cognition Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-012-0483-7 SN - 1612-4782 VL - 13 SP - S185 EP - S188 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Borghi, Anna M. A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Abstract concepts: external influences, internal constraints, and methodological issues JF - Psychological research : an international journal of perception, attention, memory, and action N2 - There is a longstanding and widely held misconception about the relative remoteness of abstract concepts from concrete experiences. This review examines the current evidence for external influences and internal constraints on the processing, representation, and use of abstract concepts, like truth, friendship, and number. We highlight the theoretical benefit of distinguishing between grounded and embodied cognition and then ask which roles do perception, action, language, and social interaction play in acquiring, representing and using abstract concepts. By reviewing several studies, we show that they are, against the accepted definition, not detached from perception and action. Focussing on magnitude-related concepts, we also discuss evidence for cultural influences on abstract knowledge and explore how internal processes such as inner speech, metacognition, and inner bodily signals (interoception) influence the acquisition and retrieval of abstract knowledge. Finally, we discuss some methodological developments. Specifically, we focus on the importance of studies that investigate the time course of conceptual processing and we argue that, because of the paramount role of sociality for abstract concepts, new methods are necessary to study concepts in interactive situations. We conclude that bodily, linguistic, and social constraints provide important theoretical limitations for our theories of conceptual knowledge. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01698-4 SN - 0340-0727 SN - 1430-2772 VL - 86 SP - 2370 EP - 2388 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Borghi, Anna M. A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Concrete constraints on abstract concepts-editorial JF - Psychological research : an international journal of perception, attention, memory, and action N2 - This special issue, "Concrete constraints of abstract concepts", addresses the role of concrete determinants, both external and internal to the human body, in acquisition, processing and use of abstract concepts while at the same time presenting to the readers an overview of methods used to assess their representation. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01685-9 SN - 0340-0727 SN - 1430-2772 VL - 86 SP - 2366 EP - 2369 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Gianelli, Claudia A1 - Ranzini, Mariagrazia A1 - Marzocchi, Michele A1 - Micheli, Leticia Rettore A1 - Borghi, Anna M. T1 - Influence of numerical magnitudes on the free choice of an object position T2 - Cognitive processing : international quarterly of cognitive science Y1 - 2012 SN - 1612-4782 VL - 13 SP - S41 EP - S41 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gianelli, Claudia A1 - Marzocchi, Michele A1 - Borghi, Anna M. T1 - Grasping the Agent’s Perspective BT - a Kinematics Investigation of Linguistic Perspective in Italian and German JF - Frontiers in psychology KW - perspective taking KW - action KW - language comprehension KW - motor chains KW - motor system KW - motor resonance KW - pronouns KW - action verbs Y1 - 0107 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00042 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER -