The Flexible Role of Social Experience in the Processing of Abstract Concepts.

ABSTRACT: Multiple representation theories propose that social experience plays an important role in grounding abstract concepts. However, it is less clear how social experience influences the processing of abstract concepts, especially whether this influence is modulated by emotional experience and task demands. To address this question, we orthogonally manipulated the socialness (high vs. low) and emotional valence (positive vs. negative vs. neutral) of abstract words in a lexical decision task (LDT, Experiment 1) and an emotional Stroop task (Experiment 2). Results show that the role of socialness in abstract concept processing was modulated by the concept's emotional valence, with different patterns between the two tasks. Specifically, positive high-socialness (HS) words elicited slower response

SUBMITTER: Yao Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11851493 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature