How abstract is risk for workers? Expertise, context and introspection in abstract concepts

Two studies were performed to test whether abstract concepts are grounded in experience and activate introspective/linguistic information. In Study 1, four groups of participants, each with different expertise in the domain of safety and security at the workplace (S&S), defined abstract concepts belonging to the S&S domain and differing in degree of abstractness. The definitions included mainly situations, confirming grounding of abstract concepts. In Study 2 the task was performed by students with no experience of S&S. The definitions were modulated by participants’ expertise; the role of introspection increased with more abstract concepts. Results support embodied theories on abstract concept

Different domains in abstract concepts

This study is a first attempt to unravel the almost unexplored domain of abstract conceptual knowledge. Four kinds of abstract concepts (nominal kinds, states of the self, cognitive processes, and emotion concepts) were investigated in two experiments. Emotion concepts displayed a specific pattern in both concreteness/abstractness and imagery ratings (cf. Altarriba et al., 1999), as did the other considered domains of abstract knowledge (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2 we highlighted the specific pattern of information (taxonomic, thematic, attributive, etc) these different abstract domains elicited in a definition production task

Concrete and abstract concepts in school age children

The aim of this study is to highlight what kind of information distinguishes abstract and concrete conceptual knowledge in different aged children. A familiarity-rating task has shown that 8-year-olds judged concrete concepts as very familiar while abstract concepts were judged as much less familiar with ratings increasing substantially from age 10 to age 12, according to literature showing that abstract terms are not mastered until adolescence (Schwanenflugel, 1991). The types of relation elicited by abstract and concrete concepts during development were investigated in an association production task. At all considered age levels, concrete concepts mainly activated attributive and thematic relations as well as, to a much lesser extent, taxonomic relations and stereotypes. Abstract concepts, instead, elicited mainly thematic relations and, to a much lesser extent, examples and taxonomic relations. The patterns of relations elicited were already differentiated by age 8, becoming more specific in abstract concepts with age

Rethinking Meaning: An Ecological Perspective on Language

Abstract In a view of language as part of embodied and situated cognition, reduction of its meaning to individual mental representations ceases to be sufficient. Language relies on and at the same time enables distributed cognition thus the key aspects of meaning are in the interaction of individuals within their world. This special issue is an outcome of a workshop, which gathered representatives of several disciplines in a common effort to find appropriate theoretical concepts for the characterization of those aspects of meaning that lie in the mutual constraining between language and collective practice. The emerging picture is complex, involving multimodal participatory construction of meaning in multiple systems and on multiple timescales. The Authors, however propose also several innovative methods to navigate this complexity. In this short introduction we aim at placing the works contained in this issue on a broader map of ongoing efforts to understand language as a proper part of human ecology

Different domains in abstract concepts

This study is a first attempt to unravel the almost unexplored domain of abstract conceptual knowledge. Four kinds of abstract concepts (nominal kinds, states of the self, cognitive processes, and emotion concepts) were investigated in two experiments. Emotion concepts displayed a specific pattern in both concreteness/abstractness and imagery ratings (cf. Altarriba et al., 1999), as did the other considered domains of abstract knowledge (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2 we highlighted the specific pattern of information (taxonomic, thematic, attributive, etc) these different abstract domains elicited in a definition production task

Taxonomic relations and cognitive economy in conceptual organization

This study, performed on children aged 5, 8, and 10, and on adults, deals with conceptual knowledge organization using a word association task. Participants were presented with concept nouns at superordinate, basic, and subordinate level. Their productions were coded according to 4 kinds of relations: taxonomic, thematic, attributive, and evaluative relations. The following results were found at all the considered ages: a. not only lower but also superordinate level concepts elicit attributive relations; b. the production of thematic relations outnumbers that of taxonomic relations thus showing that there is no thematic to taxonomic shift. These results suggest a revision of the criteria on which cognitive economy rests in knowledge organization that will probably lead to a more complex view of the cognitive economy principle

Concrete and abstract concepts in school age children

The aim of this study is to highlight what kind of information distinguishes abstract and concrete conceptual knowledge in different aged children. A familiarity-rating task has shown that 8-year-olds judged concrete concepts as very familiar while abstract concepts were judged as much less familiar with ratings increasing substantially from age 10 to age 12, according to literature showing that abstract terms are not mastered until adolescence (Schwanenflugel, 1991). The types of relation elicited by abstract and concrete concepts during development were investigated in an association production task. At all considered age levels, concrete concepts mainly activated attributive and thematic relations as well as, to a much lesser extent, taxonomic relations and stereotypes. Abstract concepts, instead, elicited mainly thematic relations and, to a much lesser extent, examples and taxonomic relations. The patterns of relations elicited were already differentiated by age 8, becoming more specific in abstract concepts with age

A MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF CALCANEAR TRAUMA IN ROMAN ITALY: A POSSIBLE CASE OF CRUCIFIXION?

Crucifixion is a cruel method of execution. This capital punishment was perfected during the Roman Empire. Despite being a frequent practice, there is only one well-documented anthropological case of crucifixion in the world at the Jerusalem burial cave (Giv’at ha-Mivtar, first century AD). We found a particular lesion on the foot of a skeleton from an isolated Roman burial discovered by excavation in 2007 in northern Italy. Here we suggest crucifixion as a possible cause of the lesion, but this interpretation is complicated by the poor preservation of the bone surfaces and the damage and holes in other skeletal parts. To assess the biological identity of the deceased and the possible effects of ante-mortem violence on this subject, we performed an integrated (anthropological, taphonomic and genetic) analysis of the remains. Burials showing evidence of violence or deviant burials may shed new light on past human societies. In this case, our interdisciplinary approach provides insight into a particular form of capital punishment