The representation of abstract words: Why emotion matters.

Although much is known about the representation and processing of concrete concepts, knowledge of what abstract semantics might be is severely limited. In this article we first address the adequacy of the 2 dominant accounts (dual coding theory and the context availability model) put forward in order to explain representation and processing differences between concrete and abstract words. We find that neither proposal can account for experimental findings and that this is, at least partly, because abstract words are considered to be unrelated to experiential information in both of these accounts. We then address a particular type of experiential information, emotional content, and demonstrate that it plays a…

• EC
  European Commission

  Award: FP6-2004-NEST-PATH; 028714
• EA
  Economic and Social Research Council

  Awards: ES/G045828/1, ES/I03479X/1, RES-062-23-2012