Special Issue of Journal of Consumer Psychology

"Sensory perception, embodiment, and grounded cognition: Implications for consumer behavior"

Recent research in psychology, neuroscience and consumer behavior highlights the close links between sensory inputs, bodily sensations, mental simulation, imagery and consumer behavior. A number of different, not mutually exclusive, conceptualizations have been offered for these links. They include the suggestion that knowledge is grounded in the brain's modal (sensory) systems; the suggestion that our early experiences with the physical world structure our later understanding of more abstract concepts; and the assumption that conceptual metaphors are the key drivers. The excitement of identifying new and often counterintuitive phenomena has sometimes distracted from the important conceptual issues involved in studying the role that sensory perception and grounded cognition play in understanding consumer psychology. This special issue of JCP aims to focus on these fundamental conceptual questions. The list of topics that fit this special issue is vast given the exhaustive nature of the sensory perception-grounded cognition link identified above. Thus, the special issue is open to a broad range of topics associated with keywords such as sensory marketing, embodied cognition, grounded cognition, and mental simulation, with an emphasis on research making conceptual and theoretical contributions. We are also open to papers documenting interesting and important effects with a plausible theory to explain these effects. As with the regular issues of JCP, we welcome research articles, research reports and review articles.

Articles for this special issue should be submitted no later than March 1, 2013. Manuscripts should be submitted using the regular JCP online system, specifying that the submission is for this special issue. The submission website is:

http://ees.elsevier.com/jcps/