The Influence of Body Movement Trend on Congruency Effect of Space-Morality

Yue-Qing DONG Ning Fan

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2018, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (6) : 1345-1352.

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PDF(651 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2018, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (6) : 1345-1352.

The Influence of Body Movement Trend on Congruency Effect of Space-Morality

  • Yue-Qing DONG1,Ning Fan2, 2
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Abstract

In daily life, people often use spatial concepts to describe moral vocabulary, such as "exemplary conduct and nobility of character".This congruency effect of space-valence has been confirmed in experiments, but it is unclear whether its internal mechanism is influenced by conceptual metaphor or polarity correspondence.Based on the classic space-valence congruency paradigm, this study controls the upward and downward movement trends and their range, and discusses the influence of body movement trends on the congruency effect of space-morality. Use e-prime2.0 to write experimental procedure. In experiment one, the subjects were required to judge the moral potency of vocabulary rendered at the top of the screen (the fixation points were at 12% of the vertical space, and the stimuli were randomly presented at 5% and 20%) or the lower of the screen (the fixation points were at 87% of the vertical space, and the stimuli were randomly presented at 80% and 95%).The experimental design included 2 (vision: upper and lower) × 2 (vertical position: upper and lower) × 2 (moral potency: moral and immoral words), and 32 undergraduates were tested in the experiment.The analysis results of repeated measurement variance show that both the top and the lower of the screen have the interaction between moral potency and vertical position. All the immoral vocabulary has the space-valence congruency effect, but the moral vocabulary has the effect only in the lower place. The moral words are influenced by polarity in the upper vision, resulting in theceiling effect. In experiment two, the fixation points were placed at the center of the screen (50% of the vertical space), the vertical distance between the upper and lower vocabulary positions was changed, and the subjects were asked to judge the moral lexical potency.Under the condition of large space, the stimuli were randomly presented in 5% and 95% of the vertical space; under the condition of small space, the stimuli were randomly presented in 45% and 55% of the vertical space.The experimental design included 2 (space: large and small) × 2 (vertical position: upper and lower) × 2 (moral potency: moral and immoral words), and 32 undergraduates were tested in the experiment.The analysis results of repeated measurement variance show that significant space-valence congruency effect occurs under the condition of small space and is influenced by conceptual metaphor.However, under the condition of large space, only the main effect of vertical position and moral potency appears. There is no interaction between moral potency and vertical position, and the congruency effect disappears. The lexical response is completely controlled by polarity correspondence. The two experiments show that the body movement trend (raise and lower head) will lead to polarity, but will not change the space-valance consistency effect of moral words.The extent of the body movement will affect the space-valance consistency effect of the moral words which only happens when the body movement is small. Big body movement will make the consistency effect disappear.The space-valance consistency effect of moral words comes from the combined effects of conceptual metaphor and polarity correlation. The polarities of body movement, vertical position, and valance have an effect on the connection of conceptual metaphors.

Key words

Space-valence Congruency / moral words / Conceptual Metaphor / Polarity Correspondence

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Yue-Qing DONG Ning Fan. The Influence of Body Movement Trend on Congruency Effect of Space-Morality[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2018, 41(6): 1345-1352
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