If I imagine, I understand. The role of simulation and metaphorical processes in reading comprehension

Abstract

My research program aims at supporting the theory of Gallese and
Lakoff in The Brain’s Concepts, by extending it at the understanding of the text. According to these authors, understanding of concepts requires the simulation and the active involvement of the sensory-motor system, being concepts either concrete or abstract. It is assumed that, according to the function simulation of the mirror system, the understanding of a text comes from the ability to imagine (to simulate) what is written in the same text, from words (understood as verbs or spatialtemporal-
causal connectives) that activate pathways related to the
reader’s perceptual-motor experience. The imagination I am thinking of in this article is not refered to “fantasy” or an ability to conceive something out of rules or rationality, but as conceived by Lakoff, “imaginative rationality”, which uses the imagination to try to understand part of what we can’t fully or directly understand. According to this model, the perceptual-motor dynamic of the text, prompted by words, connectives and groups of words carrying actions and perceptions, activates a configuration (structure) at the neural level. This configuration is of metaphorical nature, and reflects the structure of the text, determining the level of understanding.