The Role of Imagery and Emotion in the Translation of Concepts into Product Form

ABSTRACT

This paper represents a portion of a comprehensive design cognition study focused on the embodiment of concepts with varying emotional content (i.e. concrete, abstract and emotional) into product form. It is aimed at identifying differences in terms of cognitive processing among these three states during the initial part of the design process and during the creation of a new product by professional designers via the use of design briefs. A mixed-methods approach was used including both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and retrospective protocol analysis was used as a primary source of data analysis. Results showed that imageability and context availability ratings for abstract, concrete and emotion concepts are highly related. Findings are discussed with reference to models of cognition and design.

KEYWORDS:

• design cognition
• design process
• embodiment of concepts
• protocol analysis

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Deniz Leblebici-Başar

Biographies

Deniz Leblebici-Başar holds a BSc degree, and a MSc degree, both in Industrial Product Design. Currently, she is a PhD Candidate in Industrial Product Design. Additionally, she has been a researcher at Istanbul Technical University since 2002 and serves as a teaching assistant in product design studios and jewellery design courses. She has also participated in many design projects as a shoe designer that have been part of national and international events, fashion fairs, and the like. She studied design cognition at the University at Albany, State University of New York, between 2009 and 2010.

Jeanette Altarriba

Jeanette Altarriba, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She currently serves as Chair of the Department of Psychology. She received her master's and doctoral degrees in Cognitive Psychology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and then completed postdoctoral research training at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. As Director of the Cognition and Language Laboratory, she oversees a research program in the areas of bilingual language processing, second language acquisition, and emotion, attention and cognition. Currently, she focuses on how monolingual and bilingual speakers represent emotion-related words through the use of both implicit and explicit measures. Her work has appeared in numerous scientific journals including the Journal of Memory and Language; Memory & Cognition; and Perception & Psychophysics. She is co-editor of the recent volume, An Introduction to Bilingualism: Principles and Processes, as well as three other books in the areas of cognition and culture, language representation in bilingual speakers, and bilingual sentence processing.