About 70 per cent of the words we use are abstract, i.e. they do not refer to concrete objects, people, places, but rather to general concepts, ideas, feelings. It is therefore crucial to understand how abstract concepts are acquired and how and why we use them, including, for example, to facilitate children's learning of abstract concepts relating to mathematics and other scientific fields or even concepts referring to emotions.

Through an interdisciplinary approach integrating cognitive sciences, cognitive and social neuroscience, linguistics and philosophy of language, research of Sapienza University of Rome investigated how abstract concepts are acquired and used and what role social interaction plays in these learning processes.  The results of the study, conducted together with CNR’s Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, have been published in the journal ‘Nature Reviews Psychology’.

Based on experimental evidence collected in the laboratory and previously published, the research team proposes several new and interesting elements: first and foremost, the importance of inner speech and interaction with others to process and understand abstract concepts.

‘What emerges from the data obtained in the lab,’ says Anna Borghi, Professor of Psychology at Sapienza University and co-author of the study, ’is that, in order to learn and use abstract concepts, it is essential to both talk to ourselves and interact with others, not only by having them explain the meaning of these concepts to us, but also by negotiating the meaning with them and delegating our knowledge to them’.

Researchers speculate that abstract concepts evolved precisely to facilitate social interaction. Given their complexity, people had to find common ground to discuss them.

In addition to this, the work proposes a differentiation between abstract concepts, distinguishing between vague and definite abstract concepts: while the former, such as the term ‘fantasy’, do not require extreme knowledge and precision, as they are now integrated into our language, the latter have a well-defined and technical meaning and are usually used by experts.

‘During Covid-19, for example, we heard many people use concepts such as ‘exponential growth’,’ says Claudia Mazzuca, a Sapienza research fellow and co-author of the study. ‘In truth, although we didn't really know what it meant, we relied on what the experts were saying, creating a kind of language game whereby you don't necessarily have to understand every concept in depth to use it.’

Finally, the study analyses a phenomenon spreading in contemporary societies as a result of increasing specialisation: relying on experts to understand complex concepts, such as abstracts. Recently, experts have not only been other people, but also artificial agents such as Large Language Models, which form the basis of increasingly popular chatbots. Consequently, the research team is also interested in the role of these agents in the formation of abstract concepts.