1. The Fundamental Flexibility of Abstract Words
- Author
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RƒÖczaszek-Leonardi, Joanna, Borghi, Anna, Chater, Nick, Christiansen, Morten H., Fini, Chiara, Gentner, Dedre, Gervasi, Angelo Mattia, King, Daniel C, Mannella, Francesco, Mazzuca, Claudia, Tummolini, Luca, and Zubek, Julian
- Subjects
Psychology ,Concepts and categories ,Interactive behavior ,Language and thought ,Language understanding - Abstract
In this Symposium we link different perspectives and traditions of research on language and concepts in the cognitive sciences to better understand the process of abstraction from the social-interactive standpoint. In contrast to the usual benefits of abstraction – such as the ability to categorize and generalize – we underscore the possibility of abstract concepts and words to remain underspecified, “open to the context, the suggestions of others” (Borghi, 2023) or to processes of real-time negotiations (Christiansen & Chater, 2022). This is enabled by their largely non-perceptual rela-tional character (Gentner, 2005) and by the fact that they arise in cognitive systems continually embedded and active in their environments (Cisek 1999; Mannella & Tummolini 2023).
- Published
- 2024