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Left panel Mean release times in Experiment 1, by learning context and response direction. The grey circles on the left of each bar display mean reaction times by participants, the black circles on the right of each bar display mean reaction times by item. Right panel Proportion of upwards-location ratings for novel words by learning context, with 0.95 confidence intervals
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While a number of studies have repeatedly demonstrated an automatic activation of sensorimotor experience during language processing in the form of action-congruency effects, as predicted by theories of grounded cognition, more recent research has not found these effects for words that were just learned from linguistic input alone, without sensorim...
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... This is why embodied simulation is deemed useful. Another limitation is caused by the finite vocabularies of languages, which sometimes fall short of the richness of sensorimotor experience (De Deyne et al., 2021;Günther et al., 2021;Majid & Burenhult, 2014;Majid & Levinson, 2011;Majid & van Staden, 2015). Consider all the sensory, motor, affective and social experiences that cannot be described with a word in your language. ...
... However, other research has curtailed the importance of the embodiment system Garcea et al., 2013;Günther et al., 2021Günther et al., , 2018Mahon & Caramazza, 2008;Montero-Melis et al., 2022;Vannuscorps et al., 2016). For instance, studies have found that lesions to motor brain areas did not systematically impair the processing of action concepts in language (Negri et al., 2007;Papeo et al., 2010). ...
Research has suggested that conceptual processing depends on both language-based and sensorimotor information. In this thesis, I investigate the nature of these systems and their interplay at three levels of the experimental structure—namely, individuals, words and tasks. In Study 1, I contributed to a multi-lab replication of the object orientation effect, which has been used to test sensorimotor simulation. The effect did not appear across any of the 18 languages examined, and it was not influenced by individual differences in mental rotation. Next, in Study 2, we drew on three existing data sets that implemented semantic priming, semantic decision and lexical decision. We extended these data sets with measures of language-based and vision-based information, and analysed their interactions with participants’ vocabulary size and gender, and with presentation speed. The analysis had a conservative structure of fixed and random effects. First, we found that language-based information was more important than vision-based information. Second, in the semantic priming study—whose task required distinguishing between words and nonwords—, both language-based and vision-based information were more influential when words were presented faster. Third, a ‘task-relevance advantage’ was identified in higher-vocabulary participants. Specifically, in lexical decision, higher-vocabulary participants were more sensitive to language-based information than lower-vocabulary participants, whereas in semantic decision, higher-vocabulary participants were more sensitive to word concreteness. Fourth, we demonstrated the influence of the analytical method on the results. Last, we estimated the sample size required to investigate various effects. We found that 300 participants were sufficient to examine the effect of language-based information in words, whereas more than 1,000 participants were necessary to examine the effect of vision-based information and the interactions of both former variables with vocabulary size, gender and presentation speed. This power analysis suggests that larger sample sizes are necessary to investigate perceptual simulation and individual differences in conceptual processing.
... Thus, the congruency effect in the color task may result from any one of them being reactivated. To date, a series of experiments by Günther et al. (2018Günther et al. ( , 2021 could not find an action congruency effect in the font color judgment task with novel words learned in a pure linguistic context independent of any sensorimotor experience. Future research should further investigate other factors that might influence the involvement of the motor system in word processing. ...
Embodied cognition theory posits that concept representations inherently rely on sensorimotor experiences that accompany their acquisitions. This is well established through concrete concepts. However, it is debatable whether representations of abstract concepts are based on sensorimotor representations. This study investigated the causal role of associated motor experiences that accompany concept acquisition in the involvement of the motor system in the abstract verb processing. Through two experiments, we examined the action–sentence compatibility effect, in the test phase after an increase in motor features during the learning phase for abstract verbs with low motor features (Experiment 1) or novel words with no conceptual features at all (Experiment 2). After associated motor experiences were added in the word learning phase, action–sentence compatibility effect was found in the semantic processing tasks during the test phase for abstract verbs (Experiment 1a) and novel words (Experiment 2). This was lacking in the word font color judgment task requiring no semantic processing (Experiment 1b). Coupled with our previous study, these findings suggest that motor features formed during word learning could causally affect embodiment in the motor system for abstract verbs, and reactivation of motor experiences in abstract verb processing depends on a given task’s demands. Our study supports the view that conceptual representations, even abstract concepts, can be grounded in sensorimotor experiences.
