title: Mighty metaphors: behavioral and ERP evidence that power shifts attention on a vertical dimension.
abstract: Thinking about the abstract concept power may automatically activate the spatial up-down image schema (powerful up; powerless down) and consequently direct spatial attention to the image schema-congruent location. Participants indicated whether a word represented a powerful or powerless person (e.g. 'king' or 'servant'). Following each decision, they identified a target at the top or bottom of the visual field. In Experiment 1 participants identified the target faster when their spatial position was congruent with the perceived power of the preceding word than when it was incongruent. In Experiment 2 ERPs showed a higher N1 amplitude for congruent spatial positions. These results support the view that attention is driven to the image schema congruent location of a power word. Thus, power is partially understood in terms of vertical space, which demonstrates that abstract concepts are grounded in sensory-motor processing.
authors.affiliation: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Institute for Psychology, The Netherlands. zanolie@fsw.eur.nl
authors.forename: Kiki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zanolie
authors.forename: Saskia van
authors.initials: Sv
authors.lastname: Dantzig
authors.forename: Inge
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Boot
authors.forename: Jasper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wijnen
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.forename: Steffen R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Giessner
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pecher
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D019365:Metaphor; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014825:Vocabulary