Abstract
Numerous studies have found an association between valence and the vertical dimension of space (good-up, bad-down). This association has also been linked to sensorimotor experiences (e.g., body movements). In this study, we investigated whether body movements along the vertical plane play an active role in the retrieval of positive and negative words (as well as words with a more explicit association with up and down). Twenty-five participants were presented with a list of nouns associated with space (e.g., satellite, underground) and a list of nouns associated with emotions (e.g., joy, war). Subsequently, they had to retrieve the words while performing vertical head movements. We found a vertical effect in that participants retrieved more positive words when moving their head upward and more negative words when moving the head downward. These results illustrate that overt body movements are indeed associated with emotional information and can thereby influence what we remember. We conclude that abstract concepts such as emotional representations are inherently linked to motor action and are grounded in space.
Highlights
Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) theory of metaphorical representation highlights that aspects of the concrete domain, such as space or bodily states, are used to understand the abstract domain
We sought to investigate the effect of overt head movements on memory performance during recall of items associated with space and emotion
We show that the concrete domain of motion and the more abstract domain of emotion are functionally related
Summary
Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) theory of metaphorical representation highlights that aspects of the concrete domain, such as space or bodily states, are used to understand the abstract domain. Embodiment theories focus on mental metaphors which allow the mapping of abstract concepts using concrete structures – so-called source domains (cf Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; Boroditsky, 2000; Casasanto, 2009; Dudschig et al, 2015; Winter et al, 2015). The good is up metaphor postulates a relationship between vertical spatial position and valence (Chasteen et al, 2010; Larson et al, 2012; Sasaki et al, 2016; Woodin and Winter, 2018) and vertical body movements interact with emotional processing (Dudschig et al, 2015). Saccade trajectories exposed a tendential vertical deviation pattern driven by positive concepts
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