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The mind and body are usually thought of as separate entities but they are, in fact, intimately linked. The mind controls the body, of course, but the relationship is reciprocal – the body also influences the mind in mysterious ways, such that our thoughts and emotions are grounded in our bodily sensations and movements.
We now know, for example, that the sense of touch can influence our social judgements and decisions; that ambient temperature affects how we perceive relationships with others; and that movements can affect the rate at which memories are recalled, as well as the emotional content of the memories. A team of psychologists from Erasmus University in Rotterdam now reports that body posture can unconsciously influence our estimates of quantities.
According to the mental number line theory, we think of numbers along a horizontal line with small numbers on the left and larger ones to the right.
It is thought that estimating something such as the height of the Eiffel Tower involves a strategy of ‘anchoring and alignment’ – we think of the height of another building and then mentally compare it to the Eiffel Tower. This would involve retrieving information from memory, so leaning to the left may make smaller numbers more accessible than larger ones.
The findings provide further evidence for the embodied cognition hypothesis, the simplest form of which states that the content of the mind is partly determined by the form of the body. We are only just beginning to understand how the body influences mental function, but it now seems quite clear that the influence of the body extends to abstract concepts and to complex cognitive processes such as decision-making.
We now know, for example, that the sense of touch can influence our social judgements and decisions; that ambient temperature affects how we perceive relationships with others; and that movements can affect the rate at which memories are recalled, as well as the emotional content of the memories. A team of psychologists from Erasmus University in Rotterdam now reports that body posture can unconsciously influence our estimates of quantities.
According to the mental number line theory, we think of numbers along a horizontal line with small numbers on the left and larger ones to the right.
It is thought that estimating something such as the height of the Eiffel Tower involves a strategy of ‘anchoring and alignment’ – we think of the height of another building and then mentally compare it to the Eiffel Tower. This would involve retrieving information from memory, so leaning to the left may make smaller numbers more accessible than larger ones.
The findings provide further evidence for the embodied cognition hypothesis, the simplest form of which states that the content of the mind is partly determined by the form of the body. We are only just beginning to understand how the body influences mental function, but it now seems quite clear that the influence of the body extends to abstract concepts and to complex cognitive processes such as decision-making.
