Discusses the problem of creativity and examines situations in the universe where it exists.

The Nature of Creativity

Four studies tested the hypothesis that the emotion of benign envy, but not the emotions of admiration or malicious envy, motivates people to improve themselves. Studies 1 to 3 found that only benign envy was related to the motivation to study more (Study 1) and to actual performance on the Remote Associates Task (which measures intelligence and creativity; Studies 2 and 3). Study 4 found that an upward social comparison triggered benign envy and zubsequent better performance only when people thought self-improvement was attainable. When participants thought self-improvement was hard, an upward social comparison led to more admiration and no motivation to do better. Implications of these findings for theories of social emotions such as envy, social comparisons, and for understanding the influence of role models are discussed.

Why envy outperforms admiration

Why do people so often use metaphorical expressions when literal paraphrases are readily available? This study focuses on a comparison of metaphorical statements involving the source domain of taste (e.g., "She looked at him sweetly") and their literal paraphrases (e.g., "She looked at him kindly"). Metaphorical and literal sentences differed only in one word and were normed for length, familiarity, imageability, emotional valence, and arousal. Our findings indicate that conventional metaphorical expressions are more emotionally evocative than literal expressions, as the amygdala and the anterior portion of the hippocampus were more active in the metaphorical sentences. They also support the idea that even conventional metaphors can be grounded in sensorimotor and perceptual representations in that primary and secondary gustatory areas (lateral OFC, frontal operculum, anterior insula) were more active as well. A comparison of the individual words that distinguished the metaphorical and literal sentences revealed greater activation in the lateral OFC and the frontal operculum for the taste-related words, supporting the claim that these areas are relevant to taste.

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Metaphorical sentences are more emotionally engaging than their literal counterparts

The relationship between intelligence and creativity: New support for the threshold hypothesis by means of empirical breakpoint detection

The study of metaphor is now firmly established as a central topic within cognitive science and the humanities. We marvel at the creative dexterity of gifted speakers and writers for their special talents in both thinking about certain ideas in new ways, and communicating these thoughts in vivid, poetic forms. Yet metaphors may not only be special communicative devices, but a fundamental part of everyday cognition in the form of 'conceptual metaphors'. An enormous body of empirical evidence from cognitive linguistics and related disciplines has emerged detailing how conceptual metaphors underlie significant aspects of language, thought, cultural and expressive action. Despite its influence and popularity, there have been major criticisms of conceptual metaphor. This book offers an evaluation of the arguments and empirical evidence for and against conceptual metaphors, much of which scholars on both sides of the wars fail to properly acknowledge.

Metaphor Wars: Conceptual Metaphors in Human Life

This paper analyzes fictive motion expressions in English and Spanish with the twofold aim of (a) finding out whether the differences that have been reported in the expression of motion in English and Spanish also apply to fictive motion, and (b) checking whether the similarities and differences reported by Matsumoto for English and Japanese also apply to English and Spanish. We start by offering a detailed account of the similarities and differences between the expression of motion in English and Spanish; subsequently, we take a closer look at fictive motion expressions in English and Japanese. We then present two different studies carried out with the aim of gathering additional data on Spanish fictive motion expressions. The first study focuses on the strategies used by translators in rendering fictive motion expressions from English into Spanish. The second experiment analyses a Corpus of expressions generated using elicitation from drawings. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings and directions of future research.

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Fictive Motion in English and Spanish.

The present paper reports on an experiment to measure the impact of emotions and certain personality traits on translation performance. The study replicates Lehr’s (2013) methodology, but also explores the influence of personality factors on the induced emotional impact. Unlike Lehr’s study, our experiment focuses exclusively on translation students (Spanish L1/English as L2). A Spanish version of Block and Kremen’s (1996) ego-resiliency scale (ER89) was first used to assess trait variation in the participants’ psychological resilience. They were then asked to provide a translation of an emotional text, which was rated for accuracy and creativity. After having submitted their translation, they were randomly assigned to a positive or negative feedback group and received false feedback on their performance. Immediately afterwards they were asked to translate a second text, whose ratings for accuracy and creativity were compared to those from their first translation. A self-reporting questionnaire was finally carried out to obtain data on the participants’ subjective feelings during experimental time. Results corroborate evidence from Lehr’s work, pointing to a differential impact of emotions on different facets of translation performance and suggesting that different emotions may activate different processing styles. Although no statistically significant effect is found for resilient personality traits, data suggest they may also play a role in guiding translational behaviour.

Can emotion stir translation skill? Defining the impact of positive and negative emotions on translation performance

The emotional impact of translation: A heart rate study

Slobin (1997, 1998) has pointed out the differences between Spanish and English verbs of motion with regard to the expression of elements such as “Path of motion” or “Manner of motion”. Generally speaking, English verbs incorporate manner to their core meaning while Spanish verbs tend to incorporate Path, expressing Manner with an additional complement. Comparing English motion events and their translation into Spanish in several novels, Slobin found out that only 51% of English manner verbs were translated into Spanish manner verbs (Slobin 1996), the rest being neutralized or omitted. We intend to apply Slobin's analysis to verbs of saying in English and Spanish. Our work aims to analyze the conflation patterns of verbs of saying in English and Spanish and the way Spanish translators deal with them.

How to Say Things with Words: Ways of Saying in English and Spanish: Ways of Saying in English and Spanish

Typological studies on the linguistic expression of motion are certainly of interest to translation scholars. The study of how motion is expressed across languages has indeed revealed some striking typological differences (e.g., Talmy 1985, 1991, 2000; Berman and Slobin 1994; Stromqvist and Verhoeven 2004), which can account for some of the strategies translators resort to when dealing with motion expressions (Slobin 1996; Ibarretxe-Antunano 2003; Cifuentes-Ferez 2006, 2013; Ibarretxe-Antunano and Filipovic 2013). However, the question still remains as to whether translators� decisions are exclusively guided by such typological differences or whether there are other experience- or task-related factors that may explain their behaviour. This paper provides empirical evidence on the type of factors that guide translators� decisions when translating manner-of-motion verbs, exploring the impact of different types of texts and the translator�s level of expertise. For this purpose, a pilot think-aloud protocol is implemented in order to examine the translation process of ten Spanish translators (five professionals and five graduate students without professional experience) when transferring manner-of-motion verbs from English into Spanish. Our results reveal that the way translators deal with manner information is mainly influenced by typological differences between the two languages. But differences in the translators� level of professional expertise and in task-related constraints (e.g., the degree in which different type of texts focus on motion verbs) also have an effect on the strategies that translators choose to convey manner information.

Ana Rojo

Papers

Fictive Motion in English and Spanish.

Can emotion stir translation skill? Defining the impact of positive and negative emotions on translation performance

The emotional impact of translation: A heart rate study

How to Say Things with Words: Ways of Saying in English and Spanish: Ways of Saying in English and Spanish

Thinking for translating: A think-aloud protocol on the translation of manner-of-motion verbs