You ask a participant to hold a pencil in her teeth. Doing so, her face contorts slightly as her zygomaticus muscles contract. You then tell a joke that she finds truly hilarious, although your friends in the hallway didn't find it amusing. This is likely a result of which of the following processes?
A) Offline cognition
B) Sensory motor cognition
C) Embodied cognition
D) Simultaneous framing

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is an example of embodied cognition, where the bodily sensations (holding a pencil in the teeth) are influencing the cognitive process (perceiving something as funny). The activation of the zygomaticus muscles, which are associated with smiling, may have contributed to the perception of the joke as funny. Offline cognition (A) refers to thinking or processing information without being in the presence of the stimuli. Sensory motor cognition (B) links cognitive processes with sensory and motor systems, but it doesn't fully explain the influence of bodily sensations on cognitive processes. Simultaneous framing (D) refers to the interpretation of one event based on the context of another event, which is not relevant in this scenario.

You Ask a Participant to Hold a Pencil in Her