Embodied grounding of abstract concepts: an image-based comparative analysis of sensorimotor and emotional experiences in Chinese.
Jinmeng Dou, Tianqi He, Tong Chen
Cognitive Processing May 2026 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-025-01310-8 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Visual Corpus Analysis (image-based empirical corpus study) Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | 35,100 images corresponding to Chinese color terms, emotion words, random words, abstract notions metaphorically associated with colors, and concrete food words |
| Keywords | Abstract concept Conceptual metaphor Concrete concept Embodied cognition Emotional grounding Image data |
| Key points | Color-based semantic vector spaces re-represented the target abstract notions with higher quality than emotion-based spaces. The functional similarities and differences between specific color terms and emotion words were significantly influenced by the brightness-valence congruency effect. The authors argue these results offer new insights into the debate over the embodied grounding of abstract concepts. |
Abstract
The current study investigates performance differences between sensorimotor and emotional experiences when conceptualizing abstract concepts, focusing on two distinct embodied views between the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Emotional Grounding Theory. Methodologically, this study employs the Visual Corpus Analysis approach to conduct an image-based empirical exploration of a dataset comprising 35,100 images. These images correspond to 11 Chinese basic color terms, 100 Chinese emotion words, 100 random Chinese words without any control of valence, arousal and concreteness ratings, 100 random Chinese words with normally distributed valence, arousal, and concreteness ratings, 20 abstract notions that are metaphorically associated with colors and are affectively distinguishable in the Chinese context, and 20 Chinese concrete words referring to food concepts. The study includes two key analyses: (i) a comparison of the re-representation quality of the target abstract and concrete concepts within four types of semantic vector spaces constructed based on the color terms, emotion words, non-controlled random words, and well-controlled random words; and (ii) an examination of potential factor(s) responsible for the functional (dis)similarities between color terms and emotion words in depicting semantic relations of the target abstract notions. Results reveal that the color-based vector space yields higher re-representation quality for the target notions compared to the emotion-based vector space, and the functional (dis)similarities between specific colors and emotions are significantly influenced by the brightness-valence congruency effect. These findings offer novel insights into the ongoing debate on the embodied groundings of abstract concepts within the field of embodied cognition.