A motor-priming approach to embodied cognition: Forceful tests with numerical tasks

在过去的二十年里，越来越多的认知心理学家关注我们的身体在认知活动中所扮演的角色。到目前为止，数以百计的研究为这种具身认知方法提供了经验证据。然而，运动对认知活动的动态贡献仍然是模棱两可的，在理论上也没有明确的规定。从运动启动的方法到具身认知，我们将在后续项目中使用数字认知的试验台。后续项目在三个概念水平上操纵空间-数字关联，并比较由此产生的一致性效应，以测试关于抽象知识领域中认知的分层体现的预测。算术启发式和偏差模型(AHAB；Shaki等人，2018年)将通过审查其组成部分过程的时间进程来指定。此外，扎根的、具体化的和情境的知识表征之间的等级关系的提议(Fischer，2012)将被用来得出关于空间偏见的相对强度的预测。我们的目标是考察特定的运动特征(力量方向、强度和频率)如何影响特定数字任务(个位数算术和随机数生成)的表现，反之亦然。我们在三个重要方面改进了我们的早期方法：(1)对认知任务成分施加更紧密的时间控制，以提高对概念相对于运动激活的时间的洞察力；(2)对比垂直和水平的空间-数字联系，以解决物理规律中概念基础的一般预测；(3)使用手臂和腿的运动和不同参与者的专业知识来检验一般和习得具身效应的理论。该项目将在我们两个研究中心之间合作进行，两个研究中心在解决问题和体现认知方面具有互补的专业知识和共同的兴趣。波茨坦团队(费舍尔教授)从体验认知的角度研究抽象的数字和算术问题的解决，并在心理计时学和力量生产方面拥有专业知识。科隆研究小组(拉布教授)研究身体对各种认知任务的影响，包括粗大的运动任务，并在运动控制方面拥有额外的专业知识，以及接触具有手臂或腿部运动专长的专家群体。简而言之：本项目通过考察运动行为和概念操作之间的时间关系，评估了认知上相互竞争的变态和情态观点。我们聚焦于一个被认为是抽象概念操纵的原型领域，即数字认知，并询问计算头脑是否仅仅是一台计算机，或者它是否依赖于它的身体。

Within the last two decades a growing community of cognitive psychologists focused on the role of our body during cognitive activities. To date hundreds of studies provide empirical evidence for this embodied cognition approach. However, the dynamics of motor contributions to cognitive activities are still ambiguous and theoretically underspecified. From a motor priming approach to embodied cognition we will use the testbed of numerical cognition in this follow-up project. The follow-up project manipulates spatial-numerical associations across three conceptual levels and compares resulting congruency effects to test predictions about the hierarchical embodiment of cognition in a domain of abstract knowledge. The arithmetic heuristics and biases model (AHAB; Shaki et al., 2018) will be specified by examining the time course of its component processes. Additionally, the proposal of hierarchical relations between grounded, embodied and situated knowledge representations (Fischer, 2012) will be used to derive predictions about the relative strengths of spatial biases. Our objective is to examine how specific movement features (force direction, intensity and frequency) influence performance on specific numerical tasks (single-digit arithmetic and random number generation) and vice versa. We improve our earlier approach in three important ways: by (1) exerting closer temporal control over the cognitive task components to improve insights into the timing of conceptual relative to motor activation; (2) contrasting vertical and horizontal spatial-numerical associations to address the general prediction of conceptual grounding in physical laws; (3) testing theories of generic vs. learned embodied effects using arm and leg movements and varying participants’ expertise. The project will be conducted cooperatively between our two research centers with complementary expertise and shared interests in problem solving and embodied cognition. The Potsdam group (Prof Fischer) studies abstract numerical and arithmetic problem solving from an embodied cognition perspective and has expertise in mental chronometry and force production. The Cologne group (Prof Raab) studies embodiment effects on various cognitive tasks, including gross motor tasks, and has additional expertise in motor control as well as access to specialist populations with arm or leg movement expertise. In short: The present project evaluates competing amodal and modal views on cognition by examining the temporal relationship between motor behavior and concept manipulation. We focus on a domain considered prototypical for abstract concept manipulation, namely numerical cognition and ask whether the calculating mind merely is a computer or whether it depends on its body.