Faculty profile


Arthur Glenberg

Arthur Glenberg

Dept. of Psychology
420 Psychology
(608) 262-8992

glenberg@wisc.edu
Links: Department, Lab

Research Keywords

cognitive psychology (of language comprehension), educational psychology, embodied cognition, language comprehension, reading

Affiliations

  • Department of Psychology, Professor
  • Educational Psychology, affiliate

Current Projects

  • Principle Investigator, Laboratory for Embodied Cognition

Research Collaborators

Representative Classes

  • Psych 733: Embodied Cognition

Research Statement

How do words, objects, and events become meaningful to us? My students and I are attacking these problems by developing an embodied theory of cognition: Meaning consists of the set of actions we can take in particular situations, and those actions are a function of the physical situation, how our bodies work, and our experiences. Recent work has demonstrated a) how actions in a situation are an essential prerequisite for new learning; b) how language comprehension takes advantage of our knowledge of how actions can be combined; and c) how linguistic structures coordinate with action-based knowledge to result in language comprehension. We have also begun to investigate application embodiment theories to enhance children's reading comprehension and mathematical problem solving.

Selected Publications

  • Glenberg, A. M., & Kaschak, M. P. (2002). Grounding language in action. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 558-565.
  • Glenberg, A.M, & Kaschak, M.P. (2003). The body's contribution to language. In B. Ross (Ed.), The Physiology of Learning and Motivation, V43 (pp. 93-126). New York: Academic Press.
  • Glenberg, A.M., Gutierrez, T., Levin, J.R., Japuntich, S., & Kaschak, M.P. (2004). Activity and imagined activity can enhance young children's reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 424-436.
  • De Vega, M., Robertson, D.A., Glenberg, A.M., Kaschak, M.P., & Rinck, M (2004). On doing two things at once: Temporal constraints on Actions in language comprehension. Memory & Cognition, 32, 1033-1043.
  • Glenberg, A.M., Havas, D., Becker, R., & Rinck, M. (2005). Grounding Language in Bodily States: The Case for Emotion. R. Zwaan and D. Pecher (Eds.) The grounding of cognition: The role of perception and action in memory, language, and thinking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.