Abstract concepts and simulated competition.

Autor: Nico D; Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185, Rome, Italy. daniele.nico@uniroma1.it., M Borghi A; Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.; Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian National Research Council, Rome, Italy., Tummolini L; Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian National Research Council, Rome, Italy.; Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm, Sweden., Daprati E; Dipartimento di Medicina dei Sistemi and CBMS, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Psychological research [Psychol Res] 2024 Feb; Vol. 88 (1), pp. 238-256. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jun 03.
DOI: 10.1007/s00426-023-01843-7
Abstrakt: To better understand the social determinants of conceptual knowledge we devised a task in which participants were asked to judge the match between a definition (expressed in abstract or concrete terms) and a target-word (also either abstract or concrete). The task was presented in the form of a competition that could/could not include an opponent, and in which different percentages of response rounds were assigned to the participant at the experimenter's discretion. Thus, depending on the condition, participants were either exposed to a competitive context mimicking a privileged/unprivileged interaction with the experimenter or to a socially neutral setting. Results showed that manipulation of the social context selectively affected judgments on abstract stimuli: responses were significantly slower whenever a definition and/or a target word were presented in abstract form and when participants were in the favorable condition of responding in most of the trials. Moreover, only when processing abstract material, responses were slower when an opponent was expected to be present. Data are discussed in the frame of the different cognitive engagements involved when treating abstract and concrete concepts as well as in relation to the possible motivational factors prompted by the experimental set-up. The role of social context as a crucial element for abstract knowledge processing is also considered.
(© 2023. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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