Biosketch: ANNA MARIA BORGHI. Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, via degli Apuli 1 – 00185 Rome. Identifiers: orcid.org/0000-0001-9455-8408; SCOPUS ID: 7101872511. Lab website: Body, Action, Language Lab, BALLab: https://sites.google.com/view/annaborghilab. POSITIONS. Anna has a Master’s in Philosophy and a PhD in Psychology (University of Bologna). After being a faculty member at the University of Bologna, she moved to Sapienza University of Rome in 2017, where she currently is a professor of General Psychology. Since 2001, she has also been an associate researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian National Research Council, Rome. FUNDING. Anna’s research has been funded by the European Community, PRIN, FARBB, the University of Bologna, Sapienza University of Rome, and PNRR. SERVICE As service for the scientific community, until June 2024 Anna has been chief editor of a specialty of Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Philosophical and Theoretical Psychology, and is currently associate editor of the journals Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and Psychological Research.PUBLICATIONS. Anna is the author of more than two-hundred articles and book chapters, and ten books. She has published in several top journals (e.g., Current Directions in Psychological Science, Synthese, Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Review, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Trends in Cognitive Science (TICS)). In 2023 she wrote the monograph The freedom of words: On abstractness and the power of language, Cambridge University Press, on language and its impact on cognition, and on the flexibility granted by abstractness.RESEARCH INTERESTS: Anna is interested in the relationships between objects, concepts, language, and action. I adopt a life span approach, studying the cognition and behavior of children, young adults, and older adults. Overall, her work focuses on cognition and its sensorimotor basis. Specifically, research in her lab (BALLAB, Body, Action, and Language Lab) concerns: Objects and action (affordances): * how people respond to the “invites to action” that the objects offer them (affordances); * how people respond to objects when in the presence of other people (social affordances); * how people respond to actions of others, either through automatic imitation (motor resonance) or complementary actions. Concepts and categorization: * the role of action, function, and motion in forming concepts; * the relationship between concepts and words; * the flexibility of the human conceptual system, its variability across cultures, languages, and experiences, and its changes across age. Language and action, Impact of language on cognition: * the relationship between language, sensorimotor system, interoception, and emotions; * how language, including inner speech, influences cognition; * how different languages/cultures shape concepts; * interactive methods to study language.Abstract concepts: * how people acquire, represent, and use abstract concepts, such as "fantasy". Anna and collaborators have proposed the WAT (Words As social Tools) theory, according to which social, linguistic, and inner input is more crucial for abstract than concrete concepts. * how younger and older adults represent concepts of specific domains, for example technological and ecological concepts.
Roles: Spoke 4 Co-PI
Contacts: anna.borghi@uniroma1.it
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/annaborghilab
Research interests