The grounding of logical operations: The role of color, shape, and emotional faces for "yes" or "no" decisions.

Abstract

Concerning the evolution of our mind, it is of core interest to understand how high-level cognitive functions are embedded within low-level cognitive functions. While the grounding of meaning units such as content words and sentence has been widely investigated, little is known about logical cognitive operations and their association with nonlinguistic cognition. However, recent theoretical claims have suggested that "the foundations of logical oppositions and negation may well be much more deeply rooted in the physiological structure of human cognition than is standardly assumed" (p. 227, Jaspers, 2012). The present study investigated potential candidates for such a grounding process by exploring the associations between basic "yes" versus "no" decisions and nonlinguistic features. In five preregistered experiments investigating the interplay between deciding "yes" or "no" and color, shape, and facial expressions, there was converging evidence for the intercoupling between the process of performing a "yes" (agreeing) or "no" (rejecting) decision and emotional faces (happy/sad), color (green/red), and also shape (round/square and soft/sharp). Potential mechanisms for such associations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).