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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
Description
Do good readers embody more or less? The current investigation examined embodiment effects as a function of individual reading skill in the context of two cognitive theories of reading comprehension. The Construction-Integration model predicts that sensorimotor activity during reading will correlate negatively with reading skill, because good readers focus on relations among abstract ideas derived from the text. Supposedly those abstract ideas have little or no sensorimotor content, hence any sensorimotor activity while reading is wasted effort. In contrast, the simulation theory predicts that sensorimotor activity will correlate positively with reading skill, because good readers create a simulation of what is happening within the text to comprehend it. The simulation is based in neural and bodily systems of action, perception, and emotion. These opposing predictions were tested using the reading-by-rotation paradigm to measure embodiment effects. Those effects were then correlated with reading skill measured using the Gates-McGinite standardized reading test. Analyses revealed an unexpected interaction between condition and congruency, and a negative relationship between embodiment and reading skill. Several caveats to the results are discussed.
ContributorsRakestraw, Hannah Marie (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / McNamara, Danielle (Committee member) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Abstract As humans, we can instill a different mindset when it comes to our bodies and suffering. Using Antonin Artuad's contributions to the theater in examining the role and consequences of dehumanization, disability can be reimagined. There is a need for a "true theater" of "cruelty," not in the literal sense, but in a metaphorical sense whereby the essence of being alive is revealed through the exaggerated gestures of the true theater, or "poetry in space." Disability is the embodiment of chaos, in the way it manifests the human condition through the reality of having a body, and as the embodiment of conflict between ostensible symbols of socio-cultural "order," and the sanctity of human life. If this chaos is destructive to the socio-cultural, symbolic order but poetic in space, then reimagining disability in order to understand it can serve to create true compassion in the human experience. While "order" in the socio-cultural sense produces hegemony via a hierarchy of symbols and consequences, chaos serves as the innate poetry of the body: inspirational, pure and valuable. It is oriented towards that essence most urgent to humankind: the raw experience of the physical body, despite its continued existence in a confining, conflicting world. Hegemony, generated by the social symbolic order (SSO) attempts to create order out of perceived chaos and claims that suffering in the body is detrimental to life, manifesting violence towards disabled people because they are viewed as suffering and limited. Hegemony creates the conditions whereby the disabled are susceptible into thinking their own lives lack value.
ContributorsCramer, Sarah Della (Author) / Oliverio Lauderdale, Annamaria (Thesis director) / Stuckey, Michelle (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Language comprehension is an essential skill in many aspects of life, yet some children still struggle with oral comprehension. This study examined the effectiveness of an intervention to improve the listening skills and comprehension of 4 and 5-year olds. This intervention is based on principles of embodied cognition, namely that language comprehension requires a simulation (or imagination) of what the language is about. Thus, children in the intervention condition moved pictures on an iPad to simulate the stories they were hearing. Children in the control condition saw the pictures, but did not move them. To identify the effectiveness of this simulation training, we analyzed scores on a comprehension test, and changes in motor cortex activity while listening. If the intervention increases simulation, then compared to the control, a) children given the intervention should perform better on the comprehension test, and b) those children should show greater activity in their motor cortices while listening. Furthermore, the change in motor cortex activity should statistically mediate the change in comprehension. Our results showed a significant positive correlation (.79) in the EMBRACE group (but not in the control) between the change in mu suppression before and after the intervention and the change in comprehension questions before and after the intervention. This correlation suggests that children can be taught to use their motor cortices while listening, and supports our hypothesis that embodied language theories, such as simulation are useful for enhancing comprehension.
ContributorsMarji, Michelle Lee (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Blais, Chris (Committee member) / Restrepo, Laida (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12