The Structure and Content of Abstract Concepts in the Human Mind and Brain

人类思维和大脑中抽象概念的结构和内容

• 批准号: 155704-2012
• 负责人: McRae, Ken
• 金额: $ 2.26万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=522661
• 关键词: Structure; Content; Abstract; Concepts; Human

Language is an essential aspect of being human. A lot of our language and communication depends on people being able to use and understand words that refer to abstract concepts, such as "approval", "ambition", or "justice". These types of abstract concepts are critical for communicating about our emotions, beliefs, and thoughts, as well as for understanding the world around us. They also are crucial to many of modern society's functions and institutions, such as education, science, politics, and law. For all of these reasons, how people learn and understand abstract concepts is an important issue in Cognitive Science. Researchers have been working toward understanding how people mentally represent abstract concepts, and there has been progress. However, progress has been difficult because abstract concepts are, by their very nature, quite intangible. In the proposed research, we will investigate a new theory that focuses on the importance of real-world situations in people's knowledge of abstract concepts. For example, when one thinks of "justice", situations may be brought to mind involving perhaps a courtroom, a judge, a defendant, and lawyers, and actions involved in a trial. In the other direction, when hearing about a situation involving these settings, participants, and actions, it may activate the concept of "justice" in your mind. Although this theory is both intriguing and promising, it has not yet been tested scientifically in any detailed manner. This proposal outlines a series of projects designed to test whether, and in what particular ways, knowledge of such situations are important to people's representation of abstract concepts. We will assess the situational content of people's abstract conceptual knowledge, and test whether and how quickly it is activated in a person's mind when they hear or read abstract words. We will also investigate the circumstances in which abstract concepts are activated when hearing or reading about situations. The primary goal is to refine theories and add to the knowledge base in this area. By doing so, we will gain a better understanding of how humans learn, use, and comprehend language, and how they understand the world around them.

语言是人类的一个重要方面。我们的许多语言和交流依赖于人们能够使用和理解抽象概念的单词，如“批准”，“野心”或“正义”。这些类型的抽象概念对于交流我们的情感，信仰和思想以及理解我们周围的世界至关重要。它们对现代社会的许多功能和机构也至关重要，如教育、科学、政治和法律。基于这些原因，人们如何学习和理解抽象概念是认知科学中的一个重要问题。研究人员一直致力于了解人们如何在心理上表征抽象概念，并取得了进展。然而，由于抽象概念就其本质而言是相当无形的，因此进展一直很困难。在拟议的研究中，我们将调查一个新的理论，侧重于现实世界的情况下，人们的抽象概念的知识的重要性。例如，当一个人想到“正义”时，可能会想到可能涉及法庭、法官、被告和律师以及审判中所涉及的行动的情况。在另一个方向，当听到涉及这些设置，参与者和行动的情况时，它可能会激活你脑海中的“正义”概念。虽然这个理论既有趣又有前途，但它还没有经过任何详细的科学检验。该提案概述了一系列项目，旨在测试这些情况的知识是否以及以何种特定方式对人们表示抽象概念很重要。我们将评估人们的抽象概念知识的情景内容，并测试当他们听到或阅读抽象单词时，它是否以及如何快速地在人们的脑海中被激活。我们还将研究当听到或阅读有关情境时，抽象概念被激活的情况。主要目标是完善理论，增加这一领域的知识基础。通过这样做，我们将更好地了解人类如何学习，使用和理解语言，以及他们如何理解周围的世界。