This informal workshop brings together researchers interested in the origin and cognitive representation of abstract knowledge. We will discuss current theories, novel methods and promising ideas, with a view towards fostering collaborations. Questions to be addressed include: In what way are numbers special? How does interoception inform abstract knowledge? What are the roles of language and sociality? Which methods promise valid answers?    Program 

 

9.15 Welcome from Renata Tambelli (Head of Department) 

 

9.30-10.30 Linguistic and social experience and abstract concepts Anna Borghi: Words As social Tools: abstract concepts as dangerous things Laura Barca: Toward a speech-motor account of the effect of Age of Pacifier Withdrawal 

 

10.45-11.45 Numbers as special abstract concepts Fabrizio Doricchi: The space-number association in the damaged and the healthy brain Samuel Shaki & Martin Fischer: Arithmetic heuristics and biases suggest embodied number concepts 

 

12.00-13.00 Other kinds of abstract concepts Caterina Villani: Italian norms for different kinds of abstract concepts on multiple dimensions.  Chiara Fini: Abstract Concepts: mechanisms implicated in their processing and the effect of ownership on the environment representation Claudia Mazzuca: Is gender an abstract concept? Insights from a free-listing task.  

 

Lunch 

 

14.30-15.15 Abstract concepts and languages Claudia Scorolli: Abstract and concrete language in bimodal bilingualism  Claudia Gianelli: Is embodied cognition bilingual? Implications for the study of concrete and abstract concepts 

 

15.45-17.15 Interoception, bodily self and abstract concepts Alessandro Monti: Abstract and concrete concepts of the human bodily self Giusi Porciello:  Increased interoceptive awareness in pregnancy and its relationship with body image dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms Luca Tummolini: My precious! The embodied basis of object ownership 

 

17.15-18.00 General Discussion and future steps 

 

Social Gathering (time and venue TBA)