Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T16:55:24.229Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Grounded separation: can the sensorimotor be grounded in the symbolic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2021

Michael Gilead
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, 8410501, Israel
Yaacov Trope
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, [email protected]
Nira Liberman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv6997801, Israel.

Abstract

According to Lee and Schwarz, the sensorimotor experience of cleansing involves separating one physical entity from another and grounds mental separation of one psychological entity from another. We propose that cleansing effects may result from symbolic cognition. Instead of viewing abstract meanings as emerging from concrete physical acts of cleansing, this physical act may be appended with pre-existing, symbolic meaning.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(4), 577660. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X99002149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Echterhoff, G., Higgins, E. T., & Levine, J. M. (2009). Shared reality experiencing commonality with others’ inner states about the world. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(5), 496521. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01161.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freud, S. (1955). Totem and Taboo: Some Points of Agreement between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics (1913 [1912–13]) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIII (1913–1914): Totem and Taboo and Other Works (pp. VII-162).Google Scholar
Gilead, M., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2020a). Above and beyond “above and beyond the concrete.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, e153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilead, M., Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2020b). Above and beyond the concrete: The diverse representational substrates of the predictive brain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, e121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, J. (2016). The secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, M. (1952). Some theoretical conclusions regarding the emotional life of the infant. The Writings of Melanie Klein, 3, 6193.Google Scholar
Medin, D. L., Goldstone, R. L., & Gentner, D. (1993). Respects for similarity. Psychological Review, 100(2), 254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redish, A. D., Jensen, S., Johnson, A., & Kurth-Nelson, Z. (2007). Reconciling reinforcement learning models with behavioral extinction and renewal: Implications for addiction, relapse, and problem gambling. Psychological Review, 114(3), 784805. doi: 10.1037/0033-295x.114.3.784.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reuven, O., Liberman, N., & Dar, R. (2014). The effect of physical cleaning on threatened morality in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Clinical Psychological Science, 2(2), 224229. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613485565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar