Previous research showed that verifying a pictured object mentioned in a preceding sentence takes less time when the pictured object shape is compatible with the described object location or spatial ...position. In the current work we asked if nonvisual information is integrated into the mental model when the target object shape is implied by virtue of a description of a heavy versus light item being dropped on it. Furthermore, we asked if the canonical target object state continues to play an important role when the context requires the activation of a noncanonical representation. In seven experiments the data provide an affirmative response to both questions. Participants (N = 766) first read sentences that implied target object state-changes as a function of the impact caused by differently weighted items (e.g., "You drop a balloon/a bowling ball on a tomato") and then verified pictures of "squashable" target objects in either a canonical (e.g., intact tomato) or a noncanonical (e.g., squashed tomato) state. A reaction time (RT) advantage was consistently observed when a "noncanonical" target was preceded by a "heavy" (e.g., bowling ball) sentence than a "light" (e.g., balloon) sentence. However, no such advantage was observed when a "canonical" target was preceded by a light sentence than a heavy sentence. This pattern of results remained unchanged regardless of the items used and the verbal tense of the sentence. These data suggest that when changes of state are inferred (i.e., not driven by lexical semantics), both the initial and resultant states are equally accessible.
Previous findings from the sentence-picture verification task demonstrated that comprehenders simulate visual information about intrinsic attributes of described objects. Of interest is whether ...comprehenders may also simulate the setting in which an event takes place, such as, for example, the light information. To address this question, four experiments were conducted in which participants (total
N
= 412) either listened to (Experiment
1
) or read (Experiment
3
) sentences like “The sun is shining onto a bench” followed by a picture with the matching object (bench) and either the matching lighting condition of the scene (sunlit bench against the sunlit background) or the mismatching one (moonlit bench against the moonlit background). In both experiments, response times (RTs) were shorter when the lighting condition of the pictured scene matched the one implied in the sentence. However, no difference in RTs was observed when the processing of spoken sentences was interfered with visual noise (Experiment
2
). Specifically, the results showed that visual interference disrupted incongruent visual content activated by listening to the sentences, as evidenced by faster responses on mismatching trials. Similarly, no difference in RTs was observed when the lighting condition of the pictured scene matched sentence context, but the target object presented for verification mismatched sentence context (Experiment
4
). Thus, the locus of simulation effect is on the lighting representation of the target object rather than the lighting representation of the background. These findings support embodied and situated accounts of cognition, suggesting that comprehenders do not simulate objects independently of background settings.
Many studies showed that comprehenders monitor changes in protagonists' emotions and actions. This article reports two experiments that explored how focusing comprehenders' attention on a particular ...property of the protagonist dimension (e.g., emotional or action state) affects the accessibility of information about target objects mentioned in the sentence. Furthermore, the present research examined whether participants' attitudes toward the issues described in the sentence can modulate comprehension processes. To this end, we asked participants to read sentences about environmental issues that focused comprehenders' attention on different mental and physical attributes of the same entities (protagonists and objects) and then self-report their own thoughts on the topic of environment by responding to the items assessing their environmental awareness. Importantly, we manipulated the task requirements across two experiments by administering a self-report task (Experiment 1), which required the participants to rate the seriousness and the frequency of the problem mentioned in a sentence; and administering a sentence-picture verification paradigm (Experiment 2), which required the participants to merely indicate if the object depicted in the picture (related to a certain environmental problem) was mentioned in the preceding sentence. The results of these experiments suggest that the focus of a sentence on the environmental problem (rather than the protagonist's emotion and action) enhances the accessibility of information about environmental issues (e.g., plastic garbage); that the comprehender's level of environmental awareness influences one's attention during sentence processing; and that comprehender characteristics significantly modulate comprehension processes only when the measures tap into explicit (and not implicit) processes.
This work examines the influence of stored conceptual knowledge (i.e., schema and item-typicality) on conscious memory processes. Specifically, we tested whether item-typicality selectively modulates ...recollection and familiarity-based memories as a function of the availability of a categorical schema during encoding. Experiment 1 manipulated both encoding type (categorical vs. perceptual) and item-typicality (typical vs. atypical) in a single Remember-Know paradigm. Experiment 2 replicated and extended the previous study with a complementary source-memory task. In both experiments, we observed that typical items led to more Guess responses, while atypical items led to more Remember responses. These findings support the idea that the activation of a congruent categorical schema selectively enhances familiarity-based memories, likely due to the bypassing of the activated mechanisms for novel information. In contrast, atypical items improved recollective-based memories only, suggesting that their lesser fit with the stored prototype might have triggered those novelty processing mechanisms. Moreover, atypical items enhanced memory in the categorical condition for both item recognition and recollection memories only, suggesting an episodic gain due to inconsistency/novelty. The source memory results gave further credence to the argument that “Remember” judgments were based on truly recollective experiences and presented the same interaction between encoding type and item-typicality observed in recollective-based memories. Overall, the results suggest that the supposedly opposite conceptual knowledge effects actually coexist and interact, albeit selectively, in the modulation of recollection and familiarity processes.
This study examines declarative memory retrieval in ASD depending on the availability and access to stored conceptual knowledge. Fifteen autistic participants and a matched control group of 18 ...typically-developed (TD) volunteers completed a Remember-Know paradigm manipulated by encoding-type (categorical, perceptual) and item-typicality (high-typical, low-typical). The autistic group showed worse and slower recognition and less recollection but equivalent familiarity-based memories compared to TDs. Notably, low-typical items did not improve their memories as they did for TDs, likely due to difficulties in matching low-fit information to the stored schema. Results suggest that memory decline in ASD may derive from the episodic system and its dynamics with the semantic system. These findings may inform interventional strategies for enhancing learning abilities in ASD.
Words whose articulation resembles ingestion movements
are preferred to words mimicking expectoration movements. This so-called in-out
effect, suggesting that the oral movements caused by consonantal ...articulation
automatically activate concordant motivational states, was already replicated in
languages belonging to Germanic (e.g., German and English) and Italic (e.g.,
Portuguese) branches of the Indo-European family. However, it remains unknown
whether such preference extends to the Indo-European branches whose writing
system is based on the Cyrillic rather than Latin alphabet (e.g., Ukrainian), or
whether it occurs in languages not belonging to the Indo-European family (e.g.,
Turkish). We replicated the in-out effect in two high-powered experiments
(N = 274), with Ukrainian and Turkish native
speakers, further supporting an embodied explanation for this intriguing
preference.
Previous research showed that sensorimotor information affects the perception of properties associated with implied perceptual context during language comprehension. Three experiments addressed a ...novel question of whether perceptual context may contribute to a simulation of information about such out‐of‐sight objects as cast shadows. In Experiment 1, participants read a sentence that implied a particular shadow cast on a target (blinds vs. an open window) and then verified the picture of the object onto which a shadow was cast. Responses were faster when the shadow of blinds cast on the object matched that implied by the sentence. However, the data did not show the same matching effect for pictures with cast shadows from an open window. In Experiments 2 and 3, we found that verification times for pictures with no cast shadows were faster when preceded by an “open window” sentence, thus suggesting that reading the sentence does not elicit a visual simulation of any specific shadow. Experiment 3 showed that the objects superimposed with a cast shadow of the blinds and blinds themselves were verified faster after reading a “blinds” sentence. However, the results of an order analysis showed the temporal stability of the “blinds shadows” effect, but the disappearance of the “blinds” effect in the second half of the data. We conclude that the results are compatible, to a lesser or greater extent, with multiple accounts, and discuss our findings in the context of a mental imagery view, a mental simulation view, and an amodal representation view.
Although emotional mimicry is ubiquitous in social interactions, its mechanisms and roles remain disputed. A prevalent view is that imitating others' expressions facilitates emotional understanding, ...but the evidence is mixed and almost entirely based on facial emotions. In a preregistered study, we asked whether inhibiting orofacial mimicry affects authenticity perception in vocal emotions. Participants listened to authentic and posed laughs and cries, while holding a pen between the teeth and lips to inhibit orofacial responses (
= 75), or while responding freely without a pen (
= 75). They made authenticity judgments and rated how much they felt the conveyed emotions (emotional contagion). Mimicry inhibition decreased the accuracy of authenticity perception in laughter and crying, and in posed and authentic vocalizations. It did not affect contagion ratings, however, nor performance in a cognitive control task, ruling out the effort of holding the pen as an explanation for the decrements in authenticity perception. Laughter was more contagious than crying, and authentic vocalizations were more contagious than posed ones, regardless of whether mimicry was inhibited or not. These findings confirm the role of mimicry in emotional understanding and extend it to auditory emotions. They also imply that perceived emotional contagion can be unrelated to mimicry. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Theories of embodied cognition postulate that perceptual, sensorimotor, and affective properties of concepts support language learning and processing. In this paper, we argue that language ...acquisition, as well as processing, is situated in addition to being embodied. In particular, first, it is the situated nature of initial language development that affords for the developing system to become embodied. Second, the situated nature of language use changes across development and adulthood. We provide evidence from empirical studies for embodied effects of perception, action, and valence as they apply to both embodied cognition and situated cognition across developmental stages. Although the evidence is limited, we urge researchers to consider differentiating embodied cognition within situated context, in order to better understand how these separate mechanisms interact for learning to occur. This delineation also provides further clarity to the study of classroom-based applications and the role of embodied and situated cognition in the study of developmental disorders. We argue that theories of language acquisition need to address for the complex situated context of real-world learning by completing a “circular notion”: observing experimental paradigms in real-world settings and taking these observations to later refine lab-based experiments.
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