Andrea Flumini | Universidad de Granada (original) (raw)
Papers by Andrea Flumini
Frontiers in Cognition, Feb 9, 2011
Four experiments (E1–E2–E3–E4) investigated whether different acquisition modalities lead to the ... more Four experiments (E1–E2–E3–E4) investigated whether different acquisition modalities lead to the emergence of differences typically found between concrete and abstract words, as argued by the words as tools (WAT) proposal. To mimic the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts, participants either manipulated novel objects or observed groups of objects interacting in novel ways (Training 1). In TEST 1 participants decided whether two elements belonged to the same category. Later they read the category labels (Training 2); ...
The paper focuses on concepts and words referring to odors and to objects that have an odor. We a... more The paper focuses on concepts and words referring to odors and to objects that have an odor. We argue that odors are an interesting object of study since they are evanescent, and since odor words do not refer to concrete and manipulable objects, but to scents evoked by objects. A second reason why odors are interesting is that some languages, as the Western ones, lack a specific odor lexicon, comparable in richness and variety to the color lexicon, and that performance on odors naming is typically worse than performance in color naming. In this work we discuss three main issues. First, we illustrate literature showing that, even if odor words do not have concrete referents, many languages encode them quite easily: the case of odors suggests that word meaning cannot be exhausted by the relationship with a referent, and highlights the importance of the social sharing of meaning. Second, we have discussed the peculiar status of odor concepts and words. Given their ambiguous status, the...
ABSTRACT Le scienze del linguaggio contemporanee hanno accettato il convenzionalismo. Una prospet... more ABSTRACT Le scienze del linguaggio contemporanee hanno accettato il convenzionalismo. Una prospettiva alternativa suggerisce che la forma fisica delle parole può intrattenere una relazione non arbitraria con il significato indicato, secondo un processo detto simbolismo fonetico. La conferma empirica che lo sviluppo linguistico è supportato da processi fonetico-simbolici offre spunti per possibili analogie con la filogenesi del linguaggio verbale: è possibile che un sistema di suoni iconici sia divenuto sempre più arbitrario attraverso crescenti convenzioni. Inoltre se consideriamo le moderne lingue dei segni è evidente il contenuto iconico: i gesti vanno a riprodurre i più svariati aspetti di ciò cui si riferiscono. È quindi plausibile che un protolinguaggio di gesti iconici accoppiati a brevi parole abbia preceduto e favorito l’emergenza della verbalizzazione come mezzo preferenziale di comunicazione.
Scientific reports, Jan 15, 2015
Correlational evidence suggests that the experience of reading and writing in a certain direction... more Correlational evidence suggests that the experience of reading and writing in a certain direction is able to induce spatial biases at both low-level perceptuo-motor skills and high-level conceptual representations. However, in order to support a causal relationship, experimental evidence is required. In this study, we asked whether the direction of the script is a sufficiente cause of spatial biases in the mental models that understanders build when listening to language. In order to establish causality, we manipulated the experience of reading a script with different directionalities. Spanish monolinguals read either normal (left-to-right), mirror reversed (right-to-left), rotated downward (up-down), or rotated upward (down-up) texts, and then drew the contents of auditory descriptions such as "the square is between the cross and the triangle". The directionality of the drawings showed that a brief reading experience is enough to cause congruent and very specific spatial ...
Visual context modulates potentiation of grasp types during semantic object categorization
Prior research has linked visual perception of tools with plausible motor strategies. Thus, obser... more Prior research has linked visual perception of tools with plausible motor strategies. Thus, observing a tool activates the putative action-stream, including the left posterior parietal cortex. Observing a hand functionally grasping a tool involves the inferior frontal cortex. However, tool-use movements are performed in a contextual and grasp specific manner, rather than relative isolation. Our prior behavioral data has demonstrated that the context of tool-use (by pairing the tool with different objects) and varying hand grasp postures of the tool can interact to modulate subjects ’ reaction times while evaluating tool-object content. Specifically, perceptual judgment was delayed in the evaluation of functional tool-object pairings (Correct context) when the tool was non-functionally (Manipulative) grasped. Here, we hypothesized that this behavioral interference seen with the Manipulative posture would be due to increased and extended left parietofrontal activity possibly underlyin...
In keeping with the idea that observing objects activates possible motor responses, several exper... more In keeping with the idea that observing objects activates possible motor responses, several experiments revealed compatibility effects between the hand postures used to report a choice and some characteristics of the stimuli. The real-time dynamics of such compatibility effects are currently unknown. We tracked the time course of a categorization experiment requiring subjects to cate-gorize as natural or artifact figures of big and small objects. Participants reported their choice using either a big mouse (requiring a power grip: a hand posture compatible with the grasping of big objects) or a small mouse (requiring a precision grip: a hand posture compatible with the grasping of small objects). We found a compatibility effect between the grip required by the mouse and the grip elicited by objects, even if it was irrelevant to the task. In a following experiment with the same paradigm, lexical stimuli failed to reproduce the same effect. Nevertheless, a compatibility effect mediated...
a b s t r a c t Prior research on sound-symbolism has demonstrated the existence of sound-shape c... more a b s t r a c t Prior research on sound-symbolism has demonstrated the existence of sound-shape correspondences using ad hoc figures in double forced-choice paradigms. This led sound-symbolic skeptics to affirm that the reported effects were due to the properties of the figures shown or to the structure of the task used. In the present study, we hypothesized that the sound-shape correspondence effect would be observed when participants were required to choose which of two invented words would better suit an image representing a common object/entity. In addition, we hypothesized that the effect would be modulated by the object/entity category, and that natural objects would be represented with smoother shapes compared to artifacts. Results confirmed the ''classic'' takete-maluma effect both when participants chose a name for figures of natural objects (e.g., leaf) and artifacts (e.g., fork), and when they chose a name for figures of natural (e.g., animals) and art...
os se fundamentan sobre los dominios concretos. Propusimos denominar esta visión la perspectiva d... more os se fundamentan sobre los dominios concretos. Propusimos denominar esta visión la perspectiva de “cimientos sólidos” (Santiago et al. 2011), pues recuerda el modo en que los pisos superiores de un edificio se apoyan sobre los inferiores, y éstos a su vez sobre los cimientos que afianzan el edificio entero sobre el suelo. En lo que sigue expondremos cómo es posible fundamentar conceptos tan abstractos como el pasado y el futuro, o lo bueno y lo malo, en experiencias concretas.os como el pasado y el futuro, o lo bueno y lo malo, en experiencias concretas. Nuestro punto de partida será la Teoría de las Metáforas Conceptuales propuesta por Lakoff y Johnson (1980, 1999), responsable de una auténtica explosión de investigación tanto en la lingüística como en la psicología (para revisiones recientes, véanse Casasanto y Bottini 2013; Landau, Meier, y Keefer 2010; Soriano 2012). Sobre esta base, repasaremos las principales investigaciones realizadas en el Grounded Cognition Lab de la Unive...
Cognitive Science, 2013
Time (also) flies from left to right... if it is needed! Andrea Flumini (andrea.flumini2@unibo.it... more Time (also) flies from left to right... if it is needed! Andrea Flumini (andrea.flumini2@unibo.it) Department of Psychology, University of Bologna Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40100 Bologna, Italy Julio Santiago (santiago@ugr.es) Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada Campus de Cartuja, 18071 Granada, Spain Abstract The TIME IS SPACE metaphor consists in the use of a spatial mental time line (either left-right or front-back) to represent time. One of the issues still to be resolved is whether these space-time mappings can be automatically activated independently from the goals of the task. Prior attempts to settle this issue have failed to match adequately the temporally relevant and irrelevant tasks. In the present study we presented Spanish verbs and nonverbs conjugated in past and future forms in both a time judgment and a lexical decision task. Results showed that the left-right space-time mapping is only active when the task requires temporal discrimination, spea...
Does the habitual reading and writing direction (RWD) affect the aesthetic appreciation of visual... more Does the habitual reading and writing direction (RWD) affect the aesthetic appreciation of visual art? Pérez González (2012) showed that 19th century Iranian and Spanish professional photographers manifest lateral biases linked to RWD in their compositions. The present study aimed to test whether the general public shows similar biases, and under what conditions. Photographies with left-to-right (L-R) and right-to-left (R-L) directionality were selected from Pérez González's collections and presented in both the original and mirror reversed forms to Spanish (L-R readers) and Moroccan (R-L readers) participants. In Experiment 1, participants rated each picture as to how aesthetically pleasing it was. The results showed no interactions with RWD. In Experiment 2, we presented each picture and its mirror version and asked the participants to choose which one they liked better. Now, clear biases linked to RWD arose. RWD does affect aesthetic impressions of photography in the general ...
Cognitive Science, 2014
Reading and writing direction causes spatial biases in mental model construction in language unde... more Reading and writing direction causes spatial biases in mental model construction in language understanding Antonio Roman (reche@ugr.es) Dept. of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Spain Andrea Flumini (andrea.flumini2@unibo.it) Dept. of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy Marysol Escobar (marysol_puig13@hotmail.com) Autonomous University of Baja California, Mexico Julio Santiago (santiago@ugr.es) Dept. of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Spain Abstract model that represents the spatial position of those three objects. However, the input leaves unspecified many aspects of the situation, which the comprehender must infer. For example, two different spatial arrangements of the three objects are consistent with the sentence above: the lamp may be located to the left of the table or to its right (the TV would be at the opposite side). Jahn, Knauff, and Johnson-Laird (2007) observed that the preferred initial model for such a description aligns the three m...
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, Jan 5, 2018
The mental representation of both time and number shows lateral spatial biases, which can be affe... more The mental representation of both time and number shows lateral spatial biases, which can be affected by habitual reading and writing direction. However, this effect is in place before children begin to read. One potential early cause is the experiences of looking at picture books together with a carer, as those images also follow the directionality of the script. What is the underlying mechanism for this effect? In the present study, we test the possibility that such experiences induce spatial biases in mental model construction, a mechanism which is a good candidate to induce the biases observed with numbers and times. We presented a speechless comic in either standard (left-to-right) or mirror-reversed (right-to-left) form to adult Spanish participants. We then asked them to draw the scene depicted by sentences like 'the square is between the cross and the circle'. The position of the lateral objects in these drawings reveals the spatial biases at work when building menta...
The TIME IS SPACE metaphor consists in the use of a spatial mental time line (either left-right o... more The TIME IS SPACE metaphor consists in the use of a spatial mental time line (either left-right or front-back) to represent time. One of the issues still to be resolved is whether these space-time mappings can be automatically activated independently from the goals of the task. Prior attempts to settle this issue have failed to match adequately the temporally relevant and irrelevant tasks. In the present study we presented Spanish verbs and nonverbs conjugated in past and future forms in both a time judgment and a lexical decision task. Results showed that the left-right space-time mapping is only active when the task requires temporal discrimination, speaking against an automatic activation of the mental time line.
Laterality, Jan 13, 2016
Does reading and writing direction (RWD) influence the aesthetic appreciation of photography? Pér... more Does reading and writing direction (RWD) influence the aesthetic appreciation of photography? Pérez González showed that nineteenth-century Iranian and Spanish professional photographers manifest lateral biases linked to RWD in their compositions. The present study aimed to test whether a population sample showed similar biases. Photographs with left-to-right (L-R) and right-to-left (R-L) directionality were selected from Pérez González's collections and presented in both original and mirror-reversed forms to Spanish (L-R readers) and Moroccan (R-L readers) participants. In Experiment 1, participants rated each picture for its aesthetic pleasingness. The results showed neither effects of lateral organization nor interactions with RWD. In Experiment 2, each picture and its mirror version were presented together and participants chose the one they liked better. Spaniards preferred rightward versions and Moroccans preferred leftward versions. RWD therefore affects aesthetic impress...
Frontiers in Cognition, Feb 9, 2011
Four experiments (E1–E2–E3–E4) investigated whether different acquisition modalities lead to the ... more Four experiments (E1–E2–E3–E4) investigated whether different acquisition modalities lead to the emergence of differences typically found between concrete and abstract words, as argued by the words as tools (WAT) proposal. To mimic the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts, participants either manipulated novel objects or observed groups of objects interacting in novel ways (Training 1). In TEST 1 participants decided whether two elements belonged to the same category. Later they read the category labels (Training 2); ...
The paper focuses on concepts and words referring to odors and to objects that have an odor. We a... more The paper focuses on concepts and words referring to odors and to objects that have an odor. We argue that odors are an interesting object of study since they are evanescent, and since odor words do not refer to concrete and manipulable objects, but to scents evoked by objects. A second reason why odors are interesting is that some languages, as the Western ones, lack a specific odor lexicon, comparable in richness and variety to the color lexicon, and that performance on odors naming is typically worse than performance in color naming. In this work we discuss three main issues. First, we illustrate literature showing that, even if odor words do not have concrete referents, many languages encode them quite easily: the case of odors suggests that word meaning cannot be exhausted by the relationship with a referent, and highlights the importance of the social sharing of meaning. Second, we have discussed the peculiar status of odor concepts and words. Given their ambiguous status, the...
ABSTRACT Le scienze del linguaggio contemporanee hanno accettato il convenzionalismo. Una prospet... more ABSTRACT Le scienze del linguaggio contemporanee hanno accettato il convenzionalismo. Una prospettiva alternativa suggerisce che la forma fisica delle parole può intrattenere una relazione non arbitraria con il significato indicato, secondo un processo detto simbolismo fonetico. La conferma empirica che lo sviluppo linguistico è supportato da processi fonetico-simbolici offre spunti per possibili analogie con la filogenesi del linguaggio verbale: è possibile che un sistema di suoni iconici sia divenuto sempre più arbitrario attraverso crescenti convenzioni. Inoltre se consideriamo le moderne lingue dei segni è evidente il contenuto iconico: i gesti vanno a riprodurre i più svariati aspetti di ciò cui si riferiscono. È quindi plausibile che un protolinguaggio di gesti iconici accoppiati a brevi parole abbia preceduto e favorito l’emergenza della verbalizzazione come mezzo preferenziale di comunicazione.
Scientific reports, Jan 15, 2015
Correlational evidence suggests that the experience of reading and writing in a certain direction... more Correlational evidence suggests that the experience of reading and writing in a certain direction is able to induce spatial biases at both low-level perceptuo-motor skills and high-level conceptual representations. However, in order to support a causal relationship, experimental evidence is required. In this study, we asked whether the direction of the script is a sufficiente cause of spatial biases in the mental models that understanders build when listening to language. In order to establish causality, we manipulated the experience of reading a script with different directionalities. Spanish monolinguals read either normal (left-to-right), mirror reversed (right-to-left), rotated downward (up-down), or rotated upward (down-up) texts, and then drew the contents of auditory descriptions such as "the square is between the cross and the triangle". The directionality of the drawings showed that a brief reading experience is enough to cause congruent and very specific spatial ...
Visual context modulates potentiation of grasp types during semantic object categorization
Prior research has linked visual perception of tools with plausible motor strategies. Thus, obser... more Prior research has linked visual perception of tools with plausible motor strategies. Thus, observing a tool activates the putative action-stream, including the left posterior parietal cortex. Observing a hand functionally grasping a tool involves the inferior frontal cortex. However, tool-use movements are performed in a contextual and grasp specific manner, rather than relative isolation. Our prior behavioral data has demonstrated that the context of tool-use (by pairing the tool with different objects) and varying hand grasp postures of the tool can interact to modulate subjects ’ reaction times while evaluating tool-object content. Specifically, perceptual judgment was delayed in the evaluation of functional tool-object pairings (Correct context) when the tool was non-functionally (Manipulative) grasped. Here, we hypothesized that this behavioral interference seen with the Manipulative posture would be due to increased and extended left parietofrontal activity possibly underlyin...
In keeping with the idea that observing objects activates possible motor responses, several exper... more In keeping with the idea that observing objects activates possible motor responses, several experiments revealed compatibility effects between the hand postures used to report a choice and some characteristics of the stimuli. The real-time dynamics of such compatibility effects are currently unknown. We tracked the time course of a categorization experiment requiring subjects to cate-gorize as natural or artifact figures of big and small objects. Participants reported their choice using either a big mouse (requiring a power grip: a hand posture compatible with the grasping of big objects) or a small mouse (requiring a precision grip: a hand posture compatible with the grasping of small objects). We found a compatibility effect between the grip required by the mouse and the grip elicited by objects, even if it was irrelevant to the task. In a following experiment with the same paradigm, lexical stimuli failed to reproduce the same effect. Nevertheless, a compatibility effect mediated...
a b s t r a c t Prior research on sound-symbolism has demonstrated the existence of sound-shape c... more a b s t r a c t Prior research on sound-symbolism has demonstrated the existence of sound-shape correspondences using ad hoc figures in double forced-choice paradigms. This led sound-symbolic skeptics to affirm that the reported effects were due to the properties of the figures shown or to the structure of the task used. In the present study, we hypothesized that the sound-shape correspondence effect would be observed when participants were required to choose which of two invented words would better suit an image representing a common object/entity. In addition, we hypothesized that the effect would be modulated by the object/entity category, and that natural objects would be represented with smoother shapes compared to artifacts. Results confirmed the ''classic'' takete-maluma effect both when participants chose a name for figures of natural objects (e.g., leaf) and artifacts (e.g., fork), and when they chose a name for figures of natural (e.g., animals) and art...
os se fundamentan sobre los dominios concretos. Propusimos denominar esta visión la perspectiva d... more os se fundamentan sobre los dominios concretos. Propusimos denominar esta visión la perspectiva de “cimientos sólidos” (Santiago et al. 2011), pues recuerda el modo en que los pisos superiores de un edificio se apoyan sobre los inferiores, y éstos a su vez sobre los cimientos que afianzan el edificio entero sobre el suelo. En lo que sigue expondremos cómo es posible fundamentar conceptos tan abstractos como el pasado y el futuro, o lo bueno y lo malo, en experiencias concretas.os como el pasado y el futuro, o lo bueno y lo malo, en experiencias concretas. Nuestro punto de partida será la Teoría de las Metáforas Conceptuales propuesta por Lakoff y Johnson (1980, 1999), responsable de una auténtica explosión de investigación tanto en la lingüística como en la psicología (para revisiones recientes, véanse Casasanto y Bottini 2013; Landau, Meier, y Keefer 2010; Soriano 2012). Sobre esta base, repasaremos las principales investigaciones realizadas en el Grounded Cognition Lab de la Unive...
Cognitive Science, 2013
Time (also) flies from left to right... if it is needed! Andrea Flumini (andrea.flumini2@unibo.it... more Time (also) flies from left to right... if it is needed! Andrea Flumini (andrea.flumini2@unibo.it) Department of Psychology, University of Bologna Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40100 Bologna, Italy Julio Santiago (santiago@ugr.es) Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada Campus de Cartuja, 18071 Granada, Spain Abstract The TIME IS SPACE metaphor consists in the use of a spatial mental time line (either left-right or front-back) to represent time. One of the issues still to be resolved is whether these space-time mappings can be automatically activated independently from the goals of the task. Prior attempts to settle this issue have failed to match adequately the temporally relevant and irrelevant tasks. In the present study we presented Spanish verbs and nonverbs conjugated in past and future forms in both a time judgment and a lexical decision task. Results showed that the left-right space-time mapping is only active when the task requires temporal discrimination, spea...
Does the habitual reading and writing direction (RWD) affect the aesthetic appreciation of visual... more Does the habitual reading and writing direction (RWD) affect the aesthetic appreciation of visual art? Pérez González (2012) showed that 19th century Iranian and Spanish professional photographers manifest lateral biases linked to RWD in their compositions. The present study aimed to test whether the general public shows similar biases, and under what conditions. Photographies with left-to-right (L-R) and right-to-left (R-L) directionality were selected from Pérez González's collections and presented in both the original and mirror reversed forms to Spanish (L-R readers) and Moroccan (R-L readers) participants. In Experiment 1, participants rated each picture as to how aesthetically pleasing it was. The results showed no interactions with RWD. In Experiment 2, we presented each picture and its mirror version and asked the participants to choose which one they liked better. Now, clear biases linked to RWD arose. RWD does affect aesthetic impressions of photography in the general ...
Cognitive Science, 2014
Reading and writing direction causes spatial biases in mental model construction in language unde... more Reading and writing direction causes spatial biases in mental model construction in language understanding Antonio Roman (reche@ugr.es) Dept. of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Spain Andrea Flumini (andrea.flumini2@unibo.it) Dept. of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy Marysol Escobar (marysol_puig13@hotmail.com) Autonomous University of Baja California, Mexico Julio Santiago (santiago@ugr.es) Dept. of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Spain Abstract model that represents the spatial position of those three objects. However, the input leaves unspecified many aspects of the situation, which the comprehender must infer. For example, two different spatial arrangements of the three objects are consistent with the sentence above: the lamp may be located to the left of the table or to its right (the TV would be at the opposite side). Jahn, Knauff, and Johnson-Laird (2007) observed that the preferred initial model for such a description aligns the three m...
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, Jan 5, 2018
The mental representation of both time and number shows lateral spatial biases, which can be affe... more The mental representation of both time and number shows lateral spatial biases, which can be affected by habitual reading and writing direction. However, this effect is in place before children begin to read. One potential early cause is the experiences of looking at picture books together with a carer, as those images also follow the directionality of the script. What is the underlying mechanism for this effect? In the present study, we test the possibility that such experiences induce spatial biases in mental model construction, a mechanism which is a good candidate to induce the biases observed with numbers and times. We presented a speechless comic in either standard (left-to-right) or mirror-reversed (right-to-left) form to adult Spanish participants. We then asked them to draw the scene depicted by sentences like 'the square is between the cross and the circle'. The position of the lateral objects in these drawings reveals the spatial biases at work when building menta...
The TIME IS SPACE metaphor consists in the use of a spatial mental time line (either left-right o... more The TIME IS SPACE metaphor consists in the use of a spatial mental time line (either left-right or front-back) to represent time. One of the issues still to be resolved is whether these space-time mappings can be automatically activated independently from the goals of the task. Prior attempts to settle this issue have failed to match adequately the temporally relevant and irrelevant tasks. In the present study we presented Spanish verbs and nonverbs conjugated in past and future forms in both a time judgment and a lexical decision task. Results showed that the left-right space-time mapping is only active when the task requires temporal discrimination, speaking against an automatic activation of the mental time line.
Laterality, Jan 13, 2016
Does reading and writing direction (RWD) influence the aesthetic appreciation of photography? Pér... more Does reading and writing direction (RWD) influence the aesthetic appreciation of photography? Pérez González showed that nineteenth-century Iranian and Spanish professional photographers manifest lateral biases linked to RWD in their compositions. The present study aimed to test whether a population sample showed similar biases. Photographs with left-to-right (L-R) and right-to-left (R-L) directionality were selected from Pérez González's collections and presented in both original and mirror-reversed forms to Spanish (L-R readers) and Moroccan (R-L readers) participants. In Experiment 1, participants rated each picture for its aesthetic pleasingness. The results showed neither effects of lateral organization nor interactions with RWD. In Experiment 2, each picture and its mirror version were presented together and participants chose the one they liked better. Spaniards preferred rightward versions and Moroccans preferred leftward versions. RWD therefore affects aesthetic impress...