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Spatializing Emotion: No Evidence for a Domain-General Magnitude System
Benjamin Pitt1,2, Daniel Casasanto1,2
1Department of Psychology, University of Chicago.
Cognitive Science
|November 23, 2017
Summary
People map emotional valence to left-right space, but not emotional intensity. This supports metaphorical mental representation theories over domain-general magnitude systems for emotions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Linguistics
Background:
- People implicitly associate emotions with spatial locations.
- Existing research presents conflicting findings on whether emotional valence or intensity is spatialized in left-right space.
- This ambiguity challenges theories of metaphorical mental representation versus domain-general magnitude systems.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate which aspects of emotion (valence or intensity) are implicitly mapped onto left-right space.
- To differentiate between metaphorical mapping and domain-general magnitude representation in emotional spatialization.
- To resolve the apparent contradiction in previous findings regarding emotional spatial mapping.
Main Methods:
- Experiments 1a and 1b tested whether participants implicitly map valence or intensity onto left-right space based on attentional focus.
- Participants judged emotional valence and intensity under different conditions.
- Experiments 2a and 2b re-examined findings previously interpreted as intensity mapping.
Main Results:
- Participants consistently mapped emotional valence to left-right space, aligning with metaphorical theories.
- No systematic left-right mapping of emotional intensity was observed when participants focused on intensity.
- Results suggest previous intensity mappings may reflect spatial magnitude of stimuli, not emotion itself.
Conclusions:
- Emotional valence is implicitly spatialized in left-right space, supporting metaphor theory.
- Current evidence does not support an implicit lateral mapping of emotional intensity.
- Findings challenge the notion of a domain-general metric system for mental magnitudes extending to emotion.
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