TY - GEN A1 - Borghi, Anna M. A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Concrete constraints on abstract concepts-editorial T2 - 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 - 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 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Nothing to dance about: unclear evidence for symbolic representations and numerical competence in honeybees BT - a comment on: symbolic representation of numerosity by honeybees (Apis mellifera): matching characters to small quantities JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society of London : B, Biological sciences Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2840 SN - 0962-8452 SN - 1471-2954 VL - 287 IS - 1925 PB - Royal Society CY - London ER - TY - GEN A1 - Jeglinski-Mende, Melinda A. A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Rezension zu: Varma, Sashank ; Schwartz, Daniel L.: The mental representation of integers : an abstract-to-concrete shift in the understanding of mathematical concepts. - Cognition. - 121 (2011), 3. - S. 363 - 385 T2 - Frontiers in psychology KW - cognitive development KW - mental number line KW - negative numbers KW - embodied cognition KW - abstract concepts Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00209 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 9 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kühne, Katharina A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Zhou, Yuefang T1 - The Human Takes It All BT - Humanlike Synthesized Voices Are Perceived as Less Eerie and More Likable. Evidence From a Subjective Ratings Study JF - Frontiers in Neurorobotics N2 - Background: The increasing involvement of social robots in human lives raises the question as to how humans perceive social robots. Little is known about human perception of synthesized voices. Aim: To investigate which synthesized voice parameters predict the speaker's eeriness and voice likability; to determine if individual listener characteristics (e.g., personality, attitude toward robots, age) influence synthesized voice evaluations; and to explore which paralinguistic features subjectively distinguish humans from robots/artificial agents. Methods: 95 adults (62 females) listened to randomly presented audio-clips of three categories: synthesized (Watson, IBM), humanoid (robot Sophia, Hanson Robotics), and human voices (five clips/category). Voices were rated on intelligibility, prosody, trustworthiness, confidence, enthusiasm, pleasantness, human-likeness, likability, and naturalness. Speakers were rated on appeal, credibility, human-likeness, and eeriness. Participants' personality traits, attitudes to robots, and demographics were obtained. Results: The human voice and human speaker characteristics received reliably higher scores on all dimensions except for eeriness. Synthesized voice ratings were positively related to participants' agreeableness and neuroticism. Females rated synthesized voices more positively on most dimensions. Surprisingly, interest in social robots and attitudes toward robots played almost no role in voice evaluation. Contrary to the expectations of an uncanny valley, when the ratings of human-likeness for both the voice and the speaker characteristics were higher, they seemed less eerie to the participants. Moreover, when the speaker's voice was more humanlike, it was more liked by the participants. This latter point was only applicable to one of the synthesized voices. Finally, pleasantness and trustworthiness of the synthesized voice predicted the likability of the speaker's voice. Qualitative content analysis identified intonation, sound, emotion, and imageability/embodiment as diagnostic features. Discussion: Humans clearly prefer human voices, but manipulating diagnostic speech features might increase acceptance of synthesized voices and thereby support human-robot interaction. There is limited evidence that human-likeness of a voice is negatively linked to the perceived eeriness of the speaker. KW - human-robot interaction KW - paralinguistic features KW - synthesized voice KW - text-to-speech KW - uncanny valley Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2020.593732 SN - 1662-5218 VL - 14 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kühne, Katharina A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Jeglinski-Mende, Melinda A. T1 - During the COVID-19 pandemic participants prefer settings with a face mask, no interaction and at a closer distance JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Peripersonal space is the space surrounding our body, where multisensory integration of stimuli and action execution take place. The size of peripersonal space is flexible and subject to change by various personal and situational factors. The dynamic representation of our peripersonal space modulates our spatial behaviors towards other individuals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this spatial behavior was modified by two further factors: social distancing and wearing a face mask. Evidence from offline and online studies on the impact of a face mask on pro-social behavior is mixed. In an attempt to clarify the role of face masks as pro-social or anti-social signals, 235 observers participated in the present online study. They watched pictures of two models standing at three different distances from each other (50, 90 and 150 cm), who were either wearing a face mask or not and were either interacting by initiating a hand shake or just standing still. The observers’ task was to classify the model by gender. Our results show that observers react fastest, and therefore show least avoidance, for the shortest distances (50 and 90 cm) but only when models wear a face mask and do not interact. Thus, our results document both pro- and anti-social consequences of face masks as a result of the complex interplay between social distancing and interactive behavior. Practical implications of these findings are discussed. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-16730-1 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 12 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - Springer Nature CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Felisatti, Arianna A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Kulkova, Elena A1 - Kühne, Katharina A1 - Michirev, Alexej T1 - Separation/connection procedures BT - from cleansing behavior to numerical cognition JF - Behavioral and brain sciences : an international journal of current research and theory with open peer commentary N2 - Lee and Schwarz (L&S) suggest that separation is the grounded procedure underlying cleansing effects in different psychological domains. Here, we interpret L&S's account from a hierarchical view of cognition that considers the influence of physical properties and sensorimotor constraints on mental representations. This approach allows theoretical integration and generalization of L&S's account to the domain of formal quantitative reasoning. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X20000461 SN - 1469-1825 VL - 44 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER -