Sara Lenninger | Lund University (original) (raw)
Papers by Sara Lenninger
Cognitive Development, 2015
Public Journal of Semiotics
In Anna Maria Lorusso’s book Cultural semiotics: For a cultural perspective in semiotics (Lorusso... more In Anna Maria Lorusso’s book Cultural semiotics: For a cultural perspective in semiotics (Lorusso, 2015) the reader is offered an initiated review of key representatives of 20th century structuralism in semiotics and its entries into poststructuralism, with focus on method of analysis. Related to the theoretical discussions on semiotics and culture, Lorusso offers a series of case studies in semiotic analysis of cultural texts. In this review article, I discuss and evaluate the four strands in cultural semiotics suggested by Lorusso. Further, I draw implications for deciding on the themes and objects of studies in a semiotic realm that focuses on text.
Semiotica
The Making of Them and Us" (MaTUs) was the name of a research project at Lund University which to... more The Making of Them and Us" (MaTUs) was the name of a research project at Lund University which took place between the years 2014 and 2016, involving scholars from the Departments of Cognitive Semiotics and the History of Ideas, as well as the School of Architecture. 1 It was also the title given to a symposium organized by that same project on December 7 and 8, 2016 The aim of the MaTUs project, as well as of the associated symposium, was to study the encounter between different cultures, as conveyed by different semiotic means, privileging pictures, which have customarily been neglected. Human encounters constitute a central issue of the human sciences. From a European point of view, knowledge of other cultures expanded considerably in the sixteenth century, being as much conveyed by pictorial narratives as by verbal ones. This is still true today, when the meeting of cultures has become an iterative occurrence of everyday life. Yet there has been very little systematic research so far into such pictorially transmitted cultural encounters. In this project such perspectives were problematized in terms of cultural semiotics, which means that the notion of the "other" or the "foreign" in cultural encounters was studied with regard to an "Ego-culture" (the Homeworld), which, while building a model of its own culture, often itself starts out making a distinction within the field of foreign elements (the Alienworld) between an "Alter-culture" of relative high value and/or good communicational standing, and an "Alius-culture" with less (or no) value and/or outside the range of what
The experience of being imitated is theorised to be a driving force of infant social cognition, y... more The experience of being imitated is theorised to be a driving force of infant social cognition, yet evidence on the emergence of imitation recognition and the effects of imitation in early infancy is disproportionately scarce. To address this lack of empirical evidence, in a within-subjects study we compared the responses of 6-month old infants when exposed to ipsilateral imitation as opposed to non-imitative contingent responding. To examine mediating mechanisms of imitation recognition, infants were also exposed to contralateral imitation and bodily imitation with suppressed emotional mimicry. We found that testing behaviours - the hallmark of high-level imitation recognition - occurred at significantly higher rates in each of the imitation conditions compared to the contingent responding condition. Moreover, when being imitated, infants showed higher levels of attention, smiling and approach behaviours compared to the contingent responding condition. The suppression of emotional ...
Cognitive Semiotics
This paper discusses visual metaphors and aspects of similarity in relation to metaphors. The con... more This paper discusses visual metaphors and aspects of similarity in relation to metaphors. The concept of metaphor should here be understood as a semiotic unit that is also a sign (cf. Ricœur, P. 1986. The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.). This implies that not all semiotic units are signs, but also that not all signs are typical metaphors. The metaphor is a particular kind of sign because of its making use of the openness present in similarity relations. Metaphorical meaning making is related to a quality of vagueness in iconic sign relations. Furthermore, a notion of iconic attitude is proposed as a designation of subjective and intersubjective perspectives that might be taken on meanings founded on similarity. The iconic attitude mirrors the flexibility of thought and responds to the potentiality of vagueness in iconic sign relations; but, at the same time, the iconic attitude works as a stabili...
Proceedings of the 10th World Congress of the International Association For Semiotic Studies Recurso Electronico Culture of Communication Communication of Culture Culture De La Communication Communication De La Culture Cultura De La Comunicacion Comunicacion De La Cultura 2012 Isbn 978 84 9749 522 6, 2012
Cognitive Psychology, 2015
Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject... more Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject to discover his/her self-representation, and semioticians have denied that the mirror image could be a kind of sign. In the present paper, our intention is to develop a framework for realising a detailed comparison between perceptual reality, as seen in a peephole, and mirror images, as well a streaming video and pre-recorded video. In the first section, we introduce the semiotic notion of sign, using precise criteria to assure that the mirror image, as used by adults, functions as a sign. In the second section, experimental studies comparing some constellations of perceptual reality, mirror images, and video strips are scrutinized, and we report briefly the results of a study which we ourselves set up to investigate the capacities of 2 year old children to understand an object choice task conveyed by means in those four kinds of media. The result suggests that continuity, which is the opposite of differentiation defining the sign, is still important for enabling the understanding of the task in children at this age.
Proceedings of the 10th World Congress of Semiotics a Coruna 2009, 2012
Heterogenesis, 2006
As the child grows up it becomes more and more a part of the adult world of communication and und... more As the child grows up it becomes more and more a part of the adult world of communication and understanding. Semiotic studies of the development of signs in children are remarkably few, as if the mere existence of signs were taken for granted. For example, the "paths of signification" according to Greimas, illustrated by the semiotic square, do not take in to account the development of the mind. Neither is the evolutionary aspect of the sign elaborated by Groupe _ although they take perceptual and cognitive aspects into account in the construction of the sign. Nevertheless there are some very important exceptions in the literature, and in this article I will keep my focus on two of them: Piaget and Vygotsky. Their studies have had great influence in disciplines relevant to the study of semiotics such as sociology, cognitive psychology and pedagogy. The studies in the child's cognitive development conducted by Piaget and Vygotsky in the last century still have the capacity to influence theoretical claims and the designs of concrete studies (as for instance, in the work of Sonesson, Callaghan, DeLoache, Tomasello, Golomb, and von Hofsten). Krampen, in particular, discusses Piaget in connection to Peirce suggesting "developmental semiotics" as a specific approach to the study of semiotics. Other significant contributions to the enquiry into the evolution of signs have been presented by for example Sebeok (
Stages in the Evolution and Development of Sign Use, 2006
7Th Conference of the Nordic Association For Semiotic Studies, 2011
Cognitive Development, 2013
Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject... more Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject to discover his/her self-representation, and semioticians have denied that the mirror image could be a kind of sign. In the present paper, our intention is to develop a framework for realising a detailed comparison between perceptual reality, as seen in a peephole, and mirror images, as well a streaming video and pre-recorded video. In the first section, we introduce the semiotic notion of sign, using precise criteria to assure that the mirror image, as used by adults, functions as a sign. In the second section, experimental studies comparing some constellations of perceptual reality, mirror images, and video strips are scrutinized, and we report briefly the results of a study which we ourselves set up to investigate the capacities of 2 year old children to understand an object choice task conveyed by means in those four kinds of media. The result suggests that continuity, which is the opposite of differentiation defining the sign, is still important for enabling the understanding of the task in children at this age.
Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject... more Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject to discover his/her self-representation, and semioticians have denied that the mirror image could be a kind of sign. In the present paper, our intention is to develop a framework for realising a detailed comparison between perceptual reality, as seen in a peephole, and mirror images, as well a streaming video and pre-recorded video. In the first section, we introduce the semiotic notion of sign, using precise criteria to assure that the mirror image, as used by adults, functions as a sign. In the second section, experimental studies comparing some constellations of perceptual reality, mirror images, and video strips are scrutinized, and we report briefly the results of a study which we ourselves set up to investigate the capacities of 2 year old children to understand an object choice task conveyed by means in those four kinds of media. The result suggests that continuity, which is the opposite of differentiation defining the sign, is still important for enabling the understanding of the task in children at this age.
Cognitive Development, 2015
Public Journal of Semiotics
In Anna Maria Lorusso’s book Cultural semiotics: For a cultural perspective in semiotics (Lorusso... more In Anna Maria Lorusso’s book Cultural semiotics: For a cultural perspective in semiotics (Lorusso, 2015) the reader is offered an initiated review of key representatives of 20th century structuralism in semiotics and its entries into poststructuralism, with focus on method of analysis. Related to the theoretical discussions on semiotics and culture, Lorusso offers a series of case studies in semiotic analysis of cultural texts. In this review article, I discuss and evaluate the four strands in cultural semiotics suggested by Lorusso. Further, I draw implications for deciding on the themes and objects of studies in a semiotic realm that focuses on text.
Semiotica
The Making of Them and Us" (MaTUs) was the name of a research project at Lund University which to... more The Making of Them and Us" (MaTUs) was the name of a research project at Lund University which took place between the years 2014 and 2016, involving scholars from the Departments of Cognitive Semiotics and the History of Ideas, as well as the School of Architecture. 1 It was also the title given to a symposium organized by that same project on December 7 and 8, 2016 The aim of the MaTUs project, as well as of the associated symposium, was to study the encounter between different cultures, as conveyed by different semiotic means, privileging pictures, which have customarily been neglected. Human encounters constitute a central issue of the human sciences. From a European point of view, knowledge of other cultures expanded considerably in the sixteenth century, being as much conveyed by pictorial narratives as by verbal ones. This is still true today, when the meeting of cultures has become an iterative occurrence of everyday life. Yet there has been very little systematic research so far into such pictorially transmitted cultural encounters. In this project such perspectives were problematized in terms of cultural semiotics, which means that the notion of the "other" or the "foreign" in cultural encounters was studied with regard to an "Ego-culture" (the Homeworld), which, while building a model of its own culture, often itself starts out making a distinction within the field of foreign elements (the Alienworld) between an "Alter-culture" of relative high value and/or good communicational standing, and an "Alius-culture" with less (or no) value and/or outside the range of what
The experience of being imitated is theorised to be a driving force of infant social cognition, y... more The experience of being imitated is theorised to be a driving force of infant social cognition, yet evidence on the emergence of imitation recognition and the effects of imitation in early infancy is disproportionately scarce. To address this lack of empirical evidence, in a within-subjects study we compared the responses of 6-month old infants when exposed to ipsilateral imitation as opposed to non-imitative contingent responding. To examine mediating mechanisms of imitation recognition, infants were also exposed to contralateral imitation and bodily imitation with suppressed emotional mimicry. We found that testing behaviours - the hallmark of high-level imitation recognition - occurred at significantly higher rates in each of the imitation conditions compared to the contingent responding condition. Moreover, when being imitated, infants showed higher levels of attention, smiling and approach behaviours compared to the contingent responding condition. The suppression of emotional ...
Cognitive Semiotics
This paper discusses visual metaphors and aspects of similarity in relation to metaphors. The con... more This paper discusses visual metaphors and aspects of similarity in relation to metaphors. The concept of metaphor should here be understood as a semiotic unit that is also a sign (cf. Ricœur, P. 1986. The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.). This implies that not all semiotic units are signs, but also that not all signs are typical metaphors. The metaphor is a particular kind of sign because of its making use of the openness present in similarity relations. Metaphorical meaning making is related to a quality of vagueness in iconic sign relations. Furthermore, a notion of iconic attitude is proposed as a designation of subjective and intersubjective perspectives that might be taken on meanings founded on similarity. The iconic attitude mirrors the flexibility of thought and responds to the potentiality of vagueness in iconic sign relations; but, at the same time, the iconic attitude works as a stabili...
Proceedings of the 10th World Congress of the International Association For Semiotic Studies Recurso Electronico Culture of Communication Communication of Culture Culture De La Communication Communication De La Culture Cultura De La Comunicacion Comunicacion De La Cultura 2012 Isbn 978 84 9749 522 6, 2012
Cognitive Psychology, 2015
Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject... more Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject to discover his/her self-representation, and semioticians have denied that the mirror image could be a kind of sign. In the present paper, our intention is to develop a framework for realising a detailed comparison between perceptual reality, as seen in a peephole, and mirror images, as well a streaming video and pre-recorded video. In the first section, we introduce the semiotic notion of sign, using precise criteria to assure that the mirror image, as used by adults, functions as a sign. In the second section, experimental studies comparing some constellations of perceptual reality, mirror images, and video strips are scrutinized, and we report briefly the results of a study which we ourselves set up to investigate the capacities of 2 year old children to understand an object choice task conveyed by means in those four kinds of media. The result suggests that continuity, which is the opposite of differentiation defining the sign, is still important for enabling the understanding of the task in children at this age.
Proceedings of the 10th World Congress of Semiotics a Coruna 2009, 2012
Heterogenesis, 2006
As the child grows up it becomes more and more a part of the adult world of communication and und... more As the child grows up it becomes more and more a part of the adult world of communication and understanding. Semiotic studies of the development of signs in children are remarkably few, as if the mere existence of signs were taken for granted. For example, the "paths of signification" according to Greimas, illustrated by the semiotic square, do not take in to account the development of the mind. Neither is the evolutionary aspect of the sign elaborated by Groupe _ although they take perceptual and cognitive aspects into account in the construction of the sign. Nevertheless there are some very important exceptions in the literature, and in this article I will keep my focus on two of them: Piaget and Vygotsky. Their studies have had great influence in disciplines relevant to the study of semiotics such as sociology, cognitive psychology and pedagogy. The studies in the child's cognitive development conducted by Piaget and Vygotsky in the last century still have the capacity to influence theoretical claims and the designs of concrete studies (as for instance, in the work of Sonesson, Callaghan, DeLoache, Tomasello, Golomb, and von Hofsten). Krampen, in particular, discusses Piaget in connection to Peirce suggesting "developmental semiotics" as a specific approach to the study of semiotics. Other significant contributions to the enquiry into the evolution of signs have been presented by for example Sebeok (
Stages in the Evolution and Development of Sign Use, 2006
7Th Conference of the Nordic Association For Semiotic Studies, 2011
Cognitive Development, 2013
Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject... more Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject to discover his/her self-representation, and semioticians have denied that the mirror image could be a kind of sign. In the present paper, our intention is to develop a framework for realising a detailed comparison between perceptual reality, as seen in a peephole, and mirror images, as well a streaming video and pre-recorded video. In the first section, we introduce the semiotic notion of sign, using precise criteria to assure that the mirror image, as used by adults, functions as a sign. In the second section, experimental studies comparing some constellations of perceptual reality, mirror images, and video strips are scrutinized, and we report briefly the results of a study which we ourselves set up to investigate the capacities of 2 year old children to understand an object choice task conveyed by means in those four kinds of media. The result suggests that continuity, which is the opposite of differentiation defining the sign, is still important for enabling the understanding of the task in children at this age.
Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject... more Psychologists have been interested in the mirror image chiefly as a device permitting the subject to discover his/her self-representation, and semioticians have denied that the mirror image could be a kind of sign. In the present paper, our intention is to develop a framework for realising a detailed comparison between perceptual reality, as seen in a peephole, and mirror images, as well a streaming video and pre-recorded video. In the first section, we introduce the semiotic notion of sign, using precise criteria to assure that the mirror image, as used by adults, functions as a sign. In the second section, experimental studies comparing some constellations of perceptual reality, mirror images, and video strips are scrutinized, and we report briefly the results of a study which we ourselves set up to investigate the capacities of 2 year old children to understand an object choice task conveyed by means in those four kinds of media. The result suggests that continuity, which is the opposite of differentiation defining the sign, is still important for enabling the understanding of the task in children at this age.