Second of a Double Feature: Metaphor and Embodied Cognition


Raymond Gibbs is currently the Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Gibbs’ research interests are in the fields of experimental psycholinguistics and cognitive science. His work concerns a range of theoretical issues, ranging from questions about the role of embodied experience in thought and language, to looking at people’s use and understanding of figurative language (e.g., metaphor, irony, idioms). Gibbs is especially interested in bodily experience and linguistic meaning. Much of Gibbs’ research is motivated by theories of meaning in philosophy, linguistics, and comparative literature. Most generally, his research interests have wide interdisciplinary application to all fields concerned with mind, meaning and interpretation. Gibbs has a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in Cognitive Psychology, Psycholinguistics; an M.A. from the University of California, San Diego in Experimental Psychology; and a B.A. from Hampshire College in Cognitive Science.