Book review of 'Spatial dimensions of social thought' (original) (raw)
Spatial Thought, Social Thought
Spatial thought is not an internalized video of experience but rather a construction carved out of experience. Objects, categories, orderings: These constructive processes sharpen, level, add, subtract, simplify, complicate, and distort, not randomly, but in ways that contribute to sense-making. Parallel phenomena appear in social thought. For example, individuals are grouped into categories, and within-category differences are perceived as smaller than between-category differences. Categories are ordered into dimensions that are spatially arrayed from down to up and from left to right in western languages. These correspondences seem to arise from perception-action couplings, and suggest that spatial cognition can serve as a basis for social thought.
Spatial Distance and Mental Construal of Social Events
Psychological Science, 2006
Construal-level theory proposes that increasing the reported spatial distance of events leads individuals to represent the events by their central, abstract, global features (high-level construal) rather than by their peripheral, concrete, local features (low-level construal). Results of two experiments indicated that participants preferred to identify actions as ends rather than as means to a greater extent when these actions occurred at a spatially distant, as opposed to near, location (Study 1), and that they used more abstract language to recall spatially distant events, compared with near events (Study 2). These findings suggest that spatially distant events are associated with high-level construals, and that spatial distance can be conceptualized as a dimension of psychological distance.
The spatial and temporal underpinnings of social distance
Spatial Cognition VII, 2010
To what extent do people anchor thoughts about social relationships in terms of space and time? Three studies used drawing and estimation tasks to further explore the conceptual structure of “social” distance. In the three studies, participants read short narratives, drew what they imagined happening during the narrative, then estimated both time and distance. In general, results suggest that the conceptual structure of social relationships is linked to thought about space in terms of path drawing and temporal estimation, but not absolute distance estimation. Results are discussed in terms of mental simulation and intercharacter interaction.
Sharing Space: The Presence of Other Bodies Extends the Space Judged as Near
PLoS ONE, 2014
Background: As social animals we share the space with other people. It is known that perceived extension of the peripersonal space (the reaching space) is affected by the implicit representation of our own and other's action potentialities. Our issue concerns whether the co-presence of a body in the scene influences our extrapersonal space (beyond reaching distance) categorization. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated, through 3D virtual scenes of a realistic environment, whether egocentric spatial categorization can be influenced by the presence of another human body (Exp. 1) and whether the effect is due to her action potentialities or simply to her human-like morphology (Exp. 2). Subjects were asked to judge the location ("Near" or "Far") of a target object located at different distances from their egocentric perspective. In Exp. 1, the judgment was given either in presence of a virtual avatar (Self-with-Other), or a non-corporeal object (Self-with-Object) or nothing (Self). In Exp. 2, the Self condition was replaced by a Self-with-Dummy condition, in which an inanimate body (a wooden dummy) was present. Mean Judgment Transition Thresholds (JTTs) were calculated for each subject in each experimental condition. Self-with-Other condition induced a significant extension of the space judged as ''Near'' as compared to both the Selfwith-Object condition and the Self condition. Such extension was observed also in Exp. 2 in the Self-with-Dummy condition. Results suggest that the presence of others impacts on our perception of extrapersonal space. This effect holds also when the other is a human-like wooden dummy, suggesting that structural and morphological shapes resembling human bodies are sufficient conditions for the effect to occur. Conclusions: The observed extension of the portion of space judged as near could represent a wider portion of ''accessible'' space, thus an advantage in the struggle to survive in presence of other potential competing individuals.
Social spatial cognition: social distance dynamics as an identifier of social interactions
Animal Cognition, 2020
We suggest that socio-spatial behavior, which is an interaction between social and spatial cognition, can be viewed as a set of excursions that originate and end in close proximity to another individual(s). We present an extension of earlier studies that perceived spatial behavior in individual animals as a series of excursions originating from a particular location. We measured here the momentary distance between two individuals (social distance) to differentiate among eight possible types of social excursion originating in a state of proximity between excursion-participants. The defined excursion types are based on whether or not the excursion initiator also concludes the excursion, whether or not the excursion starts and ends at the same location, and the dynamics of the distance between excursion participants. We validated this approach to socio-spatial behavior as a set of excursions using it to analyze the behavior of the two sexes in rodents, of normal vs. stereotyped rats, as well as of different rodent species. Each of these groups displays a prevalent excursion type that reflects a distinct social dynamics. Our approach offers a useful and comprehensive tool for studying socio-spatial cognition, and can also be applied to distinguish among different social situations in rodents and other animals.
Enacting interpersonal space: the role of the body in social cognition
he purpose of this article is to bridge the gap between high-level social processes and low-level sensorimotor processes. Specifically, it wants to show that human copresence and social interactions (high-level social representations), are immediately remapped in spatial representations (low-level sensorimotor processes).
Space in social interaction. An introduction
Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquee
This issue addresses the relation between language and space by studying everyday settings of social interaction. 1 All contributions analyse videorecorded instances of interaction and focus, to different degrees, on the ways in which the available multimodal resources -talk, gaze, gesture, body positioning, objects, etc. -are used and coordinated for the practical purposes of the interaction. The authors employ research methods developed in empirically grounded approaches to interaction such as conversation analysis, interactional linguistics and multimodal interaction analysis. This issue is organised around four main thematic areas -Spatialities, Interactional space, Place names and deictics, Evolving spaces -that are also the fil rouge of the following state of the art developments on the relevance of space in linguistic investigations.
Transcending the "Here": The Effect of Spatial Distance on Social Judgment
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2006
Construal level theory proposes that increasing the reported spatial distance of events produces judgments that reflect abstract, schematic representations of the events. Across 4 experiments, the authors examined the impact of spatial distance on construal-dependent social judgments. Participants structured behavior into fewer, broader units (Study 1) and increasingly attributed behavior to enduring dispositions rather than situational constraints (Study 2) when the behavior was spatially distant rather than near. Participants reported that typical events were more likely and atypical events less likely when events were more spatially distant (Study 3). They were also less likely to extrapolate from specific cases that deviated from general trends when making predictions about more spatially distant events (Study 4). Implications for social judgment are discussed.
The Interpersonal Expression of Human Spatiality
Chiasmi International, 2006
A Phenomenological Interpretation of Anorexia nervosa 168 dictated by these structures, is certainly organized by it, and that human communication can be either hindered or set free thereby. Lastly, by means of my interpretation of anorexia as a neurosis that both reflects a contracted environment and also offers a spatially significant gesture in response to this contracted environment, I have begun to make evident the spatial nature of communication and to show how acts of communication are not primarily acts or experiences of isolated individuals confronting other self-sufficient individuals, but are rather spatially shared and expressed experiences of intersubjecti vity.
Structures Of Mental Spaces: How People Think About Space
Environment & Behavior, 2003
Human activity takes place in space. To act effectively, people need mental representations of space. People’s mental representations of space differ from space as conceived of by physicists, geometers, and cartographers. Mental representations of space are constructions based on elements, the things in space, and the spatial relations among them relative to a reference frame. People act in different spaces depending on the task at hand. The spaces considered here are the space of the body, the space around the body, the space of navigation, and the space of graphics. Different elements and spatial relations are central for functioning in the different spaces, yielding different mental representations.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2016
Knowing who we are, and where we are, are two fundamental aspects of our physical and mental experience. Although the domains of spatial and social cognition are often studied independently, a few recent areas of scholarship have explored the interactions of place and self. This fits in with increasing evidence for embodied theories of cognition, where mental processes are grounded in action and perception. Who we are might be integrated with where we are, and impact how we move through space. Individuals vary in personality, navigational strategies, and numerous cognitive and social competencies. Here we review the relation between social and spatial spheres of existence in the realms of philosophical considerations, neural and psychological representations, and evolutionary context, and how we might use the built environment to suit who we are, or how it creates who we are. In particular we investigate how two spatial reference frames, egocentric and allocentric, might transcend into the social realm. We then speculate on how environments may interact with spatial cognition. Finally, we suggest how a framework encompassing spatial and social cognition might be taken in consideration by architects and urban planners.
Human Behavior and Relationships Induced by Spatial Order
Interpersonal Relationships, 2021
Space truly becomes a place not merely because of the built and the unbuilt that design it, but also because of the way its users use it, behave around it, interact with it, and interact with each other in it. Space that surrounds every individual, in which an individual exists, interacts and performs, is known as “Human Space”. Organization of the Built environment around the users within their ‘human space’ is known as “Spatial Order” which is the key to formulation of non-verbal communication. Non verbal communication refers to the body language an individual adopts in order to convey a message to the fellow users of the space. This Non-verbal language subsequently becomes the basis of verbal communication that lays the foundation of Human Behavior within a particular spatial order.
Your Place or Mine: Shared Sensory Experiences Elicit a Remapping of Peripersonal Space
Neuropsychologia, 2014
Our perceptual systems integrate multisensory information about objects that are close to our bodies, which allow us to respond quickly and appropriately to potential threats, as well as act upon and manipulate useful tools. Intriguingly, the representation of this area close to our body, known as the multisensory ‘peripersonal space’ (PPS), can expand or contract during social interactions. However, it is not yet known how different social interactions can alter the representation of PPS. In particular, shared sensory experiences, such as those elicited by bodily illusions such as the enfacement illusion, can induce feelings of ownership over the other’s body which has also been shown to increase the remapping of the other’s sensory experiences onto our own bodies. The current study investigated whether such shared sensory experiences between two people induced by the enfacement illusion could alter the way PPS was represented, and whether this alteration could be best described as an expansion of one’s own PPS towards the other or a remapping of the other’s PPS onto one’s own. An audio-tactile integration task allowed us to measure the extent of the PPS before and after a shared sensory experience with a confederate. Our results showed a clear increase in audio-tactile integration in the space close to the confederate’s body after the shared experience. Importantly, this increase did not extend across the space between the participant and confederate, as would be expected if the participant’s PPS had expanded. Thus, the pattern of results is more consistent with a partial remapping of the confederate’s PPS onto the participant’s own PPS. These results have important consequences for our understanding of interpersonal space during different kinds of social interactions.
Keeping One's Distance: The Influence of Spatial Distance Cues on Affect and Evaluation
Psychological Science, 2008
Current conceptualizations of psychological distance (e.g., construal-level theory) refer to the degree of overlap between the self and some other person, place, or point in time. We propose a complementary view in which perceptual and motor representations of physical distance influence people's thoughts and feelings without reference to the self, extending research and theory on the effects of distance into domains where construal-level theory is silent. Across four experiments, participants were primed with either spatial closeness or spatial distance by plotting an assigned set of points on a Cartesian coordinate plane. Compared with the closeness prime, the distance prime produced greater enjoyment of media depicting embarrassment (Study 1), less emotional distress from violent media (Study 2), lower estimates of the number of calories in unhealthy food (Study 3), and weaker reports of emotional attachments to family members and hometowns (Study 4). These results support a ...
Space and Time as variables of Social Phenomena
Anthony Giddens and Michel Foucault are two of many social theorists who studied space and time as influences of social interaction and human agency. Many theorists have observed that different settings generate different social norms, which in turn dictates how a person acts in that setting. Giddens’ and Foucault’s approaches to space and time differ in that Giddens focuses on the micro aspects of socialization while Foucault emphasizes macro level changes in social power over time. For both, space is essential in maintaining societal cohesion, though Giddens delves further into the role of the social actor, while Foucault examines how space is used to prevent social deviance. Further, Giddens and Foucault engage with human agency, overlapping in ideas about the degree context influences micro social behaviour. In this essay, I will compare and contrast Anthony Giddens’ and Michel Foucault’s conceptions of space and time within social phenomena and explain how both conceive of space as a technique to maintain social order
2014
The social panorama approach is a psychotherapeutic method based on the view that generalized unconscious spatial imagery forms the cognitive foundation of social life. It appears to be an efficient therapeutic tool for solving a wide range of relational issues and may inspire research on space in social cognition. The leading principle of the social panorama model is "relation equals location", which means that people keep the generalized images of relevant others in steady locations in the mental space around them. The exact location of such an image governs the emotional quality of the relationship. We tested the prediction that moving a social image will change the emotional meaning of the relationship involved (i.e., relation equals location). To this end, we measured how increasing the distance to the image of a beloved alters the emotional experience. Our results show that, when asked to triple the distance to the image of a loved one, the participants exhibited a s...