Ricerc@Sapienza

Affective meanings (AFMs) represent a challenging issue to be addressed by embodied theories of cognition since AFMs foster action, social bonds and simplified interpretations of the reality. The project aims to set an interdisciplinary, empirically grounded model about AFMs, focusing the characteristics differentiating AFMs from other kinds of meanings and their role in interpersonal life. AFMs are assumed as having structural characteristics linked to specific cognitive processes and contextual conditions concerning their acquisition and use. Moreover, AFMs are assumed as constraining the access and the use of cognitive resources in interpersonal exchanges. The project comprises three workpages (WPs). WP1 focuses AFMs acquisition by the mediation of caring environments. We expect to identify the emergence of AFMs within and through intersubjective exchange aimed at mediating/regulating relation between child and mother. WP2 analyzes the structural and functional characteristics of AFM and their interplay with the context. We expect to identify AFMs characteristic detecting the role of cultural and relational context in modulating them. WP3, focuses the role of AFMs in feeding interpersonal context. We expect to identify a specific feedforward-feedback mechanism through which AFMs regulate - and are regulated by - the relation between therapist and patients in individual and couple therapy. In their whole, results are expected to provide an integrated understanding about the characteristics of the AFMs and their dependence on the way they are acquired. On the other hand, AFMs study in developmental and interpersonal context enables to model AFMs dynamic and functional characteristics as well as the role they play in grounding and regulating cognition and action.