Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:44:03.601Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Psychology of cleansing through the prism of intersecting object histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2021

Zachary Ekves
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269. zachary.ekves@uconn.edu;  yanina.prystauka@uconn.edu; charles.davis@uconn.edu;  eiling.yee@uconn.edu; gerry.altmann@uconn.edu; http://charlespdavis.com; http://yeelab.uconn.edu; http://altmann.lab.uconn.edu
Yanina Prystauka
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269. zachary.ekves@uconn.edu;  yanina.prystauka@uconn.edu; charles.davis@uconn.edu;  eiling.yee@uconn.edu; gerry.altmann@uconn.edu; http://charlespdavis.com; http://yeelab.uconn.edu; http://altmann.lab.uconn.edu
Charles P. Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269. zachary.ekves@uconn.edu;  yanina.prystauka@uconn.edu; charles.davis@uconn.edu;  eiling.yee@uconn.edu; gerry.altmann@uconn.edu; http://charlespdavis.com; http://yeelab.uconn.edu; http://altmann.lab.uconn.edu
Eiling Yee
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269. zachary.ekves@uconn.edu;  yanina.prystauka@uconn.edu; charles.davis@uconn.edu;  eiling.yee@uconn.edu; gerry.altmann@uconn.edu; http://charlespdavis.com; http://yeelab.uconn.edu; http://altmann.lab.uconn.edu
Gerry T. M. Altmann
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Sciences, Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269. zachary.ekves@uconn.edu;  yanina.prystauka@uconn.edu; charles.davis@uconn.edu;  eiling.yee@uconn.edu; gerry.altmann@uconn.edu; http://charlespdavis.com; http://yeelab.uconn.edu; http://altmann.lab.uconn.edu

Abstract

We link cleansing effects to contemporary cognitive theories via an account of event representation (intersecting object histories) that provides an explicit, neurally plausible mechanism for encoding objects (e.g., the self) and their associations (with other entities) across time. It explains separation as resulting from weakening associations between the self in the present and the self in the past.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The first two authors contributed equally to this commentary.

References

Altmann, G., & Ekves, Z. (2019). Events as intersecting object histories: A new theory of event representation. Psychological Review, 126(6), 817840. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000154CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boyer, P., & Liénard, P. (2006). Why ritualized behavior? Precaution systems and action parsing in developmental, pathological and cultural rituals. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29(6), 595613.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moscovitch, M., Cabeza, R., Winocur, G., & Nadel, L. (2016). Episodic memory and beyond: The hippocampus and neocortex in transformation. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 105134.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radvansky, G. A., & Copeland, D. E. (2006). Walking through doorways causes forgetting: Situation models and experienced space. Memory & Cognition, 34(5), 11501156. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xu, A. J., Zwick, R., & Schwarz, N. (2012). Washing away your (good or bad) luck: Physical cleansing affects risk-taking behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(1), 2630. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023997.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yee, E., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2016). Putting concepts into context. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23, 10151027.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zacks, J. M., Speer, N. K., Swallow, K. M., Braver, T. S., & Reynolds, J. R. (2007). Event perception: A mind-brain perspective. Psychological Bulletin, 133(2), 273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed