We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Emotive concept nouns and motor responses: Attraction or repulsion?
- Authors
Freina, Laura; Baroni, Giulia; Borghi, Anna M.; Nicoletti, Roberto
- Abstract
We carried out three experiments aimed at testing whether hand posture affects the compatibility effect that Chen and Bargh (1999) found between a word's emotional connotation and arm movement direction. In the present study, participants responded by pressing two buttons: one placed near their body, the other far away. In Experiment 1, in which they pressed the response button with their hand open, RTs were shorter when participants pressed the far button for positive words and the near button for negative words, as if they simulated reaching for something good and avoiding something bad. However, in Experiments 2 and 3, in which participants pressed the response button with a tennis ball in their hand, RTs were shorter when participants pressed the near button for positive words and the far button for negative words, as if they simulated drawing a good thing closer and pushing a bad thing away. Results are discussed within the framework of theories on concept grounding in emotion and action systems.
- Subjects
POSTURE; PERCEPTUAL-motor processes; PSYCHOLOGY of movement; MOTION; TENNIS balls; EMOTIONS; THEORY of knowledge; COGNITION; PSYCHOLOGY
- Publication
Memory & Cognition, 2009, Vol 37, Issue 4, p493
- ISSN
0090-502X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3758/MC.37.4.493