Consensus Paper: Current Perspectives on Abstract Concepts and Future Research Directions

Briony Banks; Anna M Borghi; Raphaël Fargier; Chiara Fini; Domicele Jonauskaite; Claudia Mazzuca; Martina Montalti; Caterina Villani; Greg Woodin

doi:10.5334/joc.238

Consensus Paper: Current Perspectives on Abstract Concepts and Future Research Directions

J Cogn. 2023 Oct 10;6(1):62. doi: 10.5334/joc.238. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Briony Banks¹, Anna M Borghi^{2

3}, Raphaël Fargier⁴, Chiara Fini², Domicele Jonauskaite^{5

6}, Claudia Mazzuca², Martina Montalti^{7

8}, Caterina Villani⁹, Greg Woodin¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, UK.
² Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
³ Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
⁴ Department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo, Norway.
⁵ Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
⁶ Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁷ Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Italy.
⁸ Department of Medicine and Surgery - Unit of Neuroscience, University of Parma, Italy.
⁹ Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Bologna, Italy.
¹⁰ Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of Birmingham, UK.

Abstract

concepts are relevant to a wide range of disciplines, including cognitive science, linguistics, psychology, cognitive, social, and affective neuroscience, and philosophy. This consensus paper synthesizes the work and views of researchers in the field, discussing current perspectives on theoretical and methodological issues, and recommendations for future research. In this paper, we urge researchers to go beyond the traditional abstract-concrete dichotomy and consider the multiple dimensions that characterize concepts (e.g., sensorimotor experience, social interaction, conceptual metaphor), as well as the mediating influence of linguistic and cultural context on conceptual representations. We also promote the use of interactive methods to investigate both the comprehension and production of abstract concepts, while also focusing on individual differences in conceptual representations. Overall, we argue that abstract concepts should be studied in a more nuanced way that takes into account their complexity and diversity, which should permit us a fuller, more holistic understanding of abstract cognition.

Keywords: abstract concepts; contextuality; individual differences; interactive methods; multidimensionality; social interaction.

Grants and funding

Greg Woodin was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/P000711/1]. Anna M. Borghi and Claudia Mazzuca were supported by the EU H2020 project TRAINCREASE (grant n.952324); Anna M. Borghi and Chiara Fini by the Sapienza Excellence Project Inner grounding of abstract concepts: the role of interoception and social metacognition - (grant n. RM11816428832AC7). Domicele Jonauskaite was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation with the Postdoc.Mobility fellowship grant (P500PS_202956). Martina Montalti was supported by Mutti’s donation to Prof. Vittorio Gallese (University of Parma, Italy) and by FFABR UNIME 2020 to Prof. Valentina Cuccio (University of Messina, Italy). Briony Banks was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 682848 awarded to Louise Connell). Research by Raphaël Fargier was supported by grants ANR-16-CONV-0002 (ILCB) and the Excellence Initiative of Aix-Marseille University (A*MIDEX). Caterina Villani was supported by the European Research Council - Starting grant under the ABSTRACTION project (Grant agreement No. ERC-2021-STG-101039777 awarded to Marianna Bolognesi).