Three symbol ungrounding problems: Abstract concepts and the future of embodied cognition.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review August 1, 2016 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-015-0825-4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Brain Humans Concept formation Semantics Concepts Grounded cognition Embodied cognition Semantic memory Word meaning |
| Key points | Argues that abstract concepts should not be treated as a single test case for embodied cognition, but instead pose three distinct problems: generalization, flexibility, and disembodiment. Proposes that identifying these problems provides a framework for critically evaluating and improving recent theoretical proposals. |
Abstract
A great deal of research has focused on the question of whether or not concepts are embodied as a rule. Supporters of embodiment have pointed to studies that implicate affective and sensorimotor systems in cognitive tasks, while critics of embodiment have offered nonembodied explanations of these results and pointed to studies that implicate amodal systems. Abstract concepts have tended to be viewed as an important test case in this polemical debate. This essay argues that we need to move beyond a pretheoretical notion of abstraction. Against the background of current research and theory, abstract concepts do not pose a single, unified problem for embodied cognition but, instead, three distinct problems: the problem of generalization, the problem of flexibility, and the problem of disembodiment. Identifying these problems provides a conceptual framework for critically evaluating, and perhaps improving upon, recent theoretical proposals.
Citations in the library
Cited by 12
- The Story So Far: How Embodied Cognition Advances Our Understanding of Meaning-Making Frontiers in Psychology July 31, 2017
- Embodied cognition and abstract concepts: Do concept empiricists leave anything out? Philosophical Psychology September 19, 2018
- The experiential basis of concepts: integrating embodied and enactive accounts. Frontiers in Psychology 2025
- A neural framework for the origin of meaning: network dynamics, context and the hippocampus Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences July 9, 2026
- Higher-Level Cognition Under Predictive Processing: Structural Representations and Grounded Cognition Minds and Machines March 19, 2026
and 7 more in the library
Cites 4
- What is embodied about cognition? Language, Cognition and Neuroscience May 1, 2015
- On the need for Embodied and Dis-Embodied Cognition. Frontiers in Psychology January 25, 2011
- A critical look at the embodied cognition hypothesis and a new proposal for grounding conceptual content. Journal of physiology, Paris 2008
- Six views of embodied cognition 2002