1. Testing Similarity is Proximity in Realistic Reasoning Situations Bodo Winter & Teenie Matlock Cognitive and Information Sciences 23-28 June, 2013

4. SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY

6. SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY Casasanto (2008)

7. duty pride

8. SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY Casasanto (2008) duty pride

9. SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY Casasanto (2008) duty pride

10. How similar in meaning? similar not similar SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY Casasanto (2008) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

11. SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY Casasanto (2008)

12. "same""different" SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY Boot & Pecher (2012), cf. Breaux & Feist (2008)

15. BUT… …the research is entirely within-subjects (for a discussion of problems with this, cf. Stanovich & West, 2008) …the research focuses on abstract tasks …the unidirectionality/asymmetry of this metaphor has not been extensively tested

16. Condition 1: closeCondition 2: far 82 participants

18. Space affects similarity ratings

21. t(80)=2.34, p<0.03 Space affects similarity ratings

22. Our experiments Space > Similarity Similarity > Space Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Stimuli: People

23. Similar text “Ann and Jen attend the same class, but they have never talked to each other. Ann likes hip hop, and Jen does, too. They have similar political ideals. Ann is rather conservative, and so is Jen. Also, Ann is outgoing, and Jen is, too.”

24. Dissimilar text “Ann and Jen attend the same class, but they have never talked to each other. Ann likes pop, but Jen loves jazz. They have different political ideals. Ann is rather conservative, but Jen is not. Also, Ann is outgoing but Jen is shy.”

25. 401 participants

26. Similarity affects distance

29. t(334.73)=6.96, p<0.0001 Similarity affects distance

30. Our experiments Space > Similarity Similarity > Space Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Experiment 3 Stimuli: PeopleStimuli: Cities

31. Similar text “The city of Swaneplam has just finished its annual budget, and so has the city of Scaneplave. Swaneplam decided to invest more in education and public healthcare this year. It will also contribute generously to its public transportation system. Similarly, Scaneplave will increase funding for education and healthcare. Also like Swaneplam, Scaneplave will dramatically expand funds for transportation this year.”

32. Dissimilar text “The city of Swaneplam has just finished its annual budget, and so has the city of Scaneplave. Swaneplam decided to invest more in education and public healthcare this year. It will also contribute generously to its public transportation system. In contrast, Scaneplave will decrease funding for education and healthcare. Also unlike Swaneplam, Scaneplave will dramatically slash funds for transportation this year.”

34. Design Semantic Similarity Similar vs. Different Phonological Similarity Scaneplave / Swaneplam Scaneplave / Mouchdalt 368 participants

35. Semantic Manipulation t(361)=2.44, p<0.02

36. Phonological Manipulation t(361)=1.39, p=0.16 Scaneplave vs. Mouchdalt Scaneplave vs. Swaneplam

37. Our experiments Space > Similarity Similarity > Space Space > Similarity Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Experiment 3 Experiment 4 Stimuli: PeopleStimuli: Cities

38. Condition 1: closeCondition 2: far 40 participants

39. t(78)=2.31, p<0.03 Space affects similarity ratings

40. Our experiments Space > Similarity Similarity > Space Space > Similarity Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Experiment 3 Experiment 4 Stimuli: PeopleStimuli: Cities

41. Conclusions #1 Convergent evidence for SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY Between subjects Richer linguistic stimuli More concrete

42. Conclusions #2 Unidirectionality/Asymmetry of SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY ? Space > Similarity Similarity > Space

43. Conclusions #2 Physical Warmth > Social Warmth Social Warmth > Physical Warmth Distance > Social Warmth Social Warmth > Distance Space > Number Number > Space Williams & Bargh (2008a)Zhong & Leonardelli (2008) Williams & Bargh (2008b)Matthews & Matlock (2011) e.g., Dehaene et al. (1993)eg., Fischer et al. (2003)

44. Conclusions #3 (1) People judge entities to be more similar to each other when they are placed closely in space (2) People judge entities to be closer to each other when they are thought to be more similar

45. Conclusions #3 (1) People judge entities to be more similar to each other when they are placed closely in space (2) People judge entities to be closer to each other when they are thought to be more similar

46. Conclusions #3 This reflects how a metaphor such as SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY plays a role in everyday reasoning Winter & Matlock (accepted)

48. Teenie Matlock Christy Banks Collaborator THANK YOU Jesse Falke Research Assistants