Articulatory suppression delays processing of abstract words: The role of inner speech

Abstract

Compared to concrete concepts, like “book”, abstract concepts expressed by words like “justice” are more detached from sensorial experiences, even though they are also grounded in sensorial modalities. Abstract concepts lack a single object as referent and are characterized by higher variability both within and across participants. According to the Word as Social Tool (WAT) proposal, owing to their complexity, abstract concepts need to be processed with the help of inner language. Inner language can namely help participants to re-explain to themselves the meaning of the word, to keep information active in working memory, and to prepare themselves to ask information from more competent people. While previous studies have demonstrated that the mouth is involved during abstract concepts’ processing, both the functional role and the mechanisms underlying this involvement still need to be clarified. We report an experiment in which participants were required to evaluate whether 78 words were abstract or concrete by pressing two different pedals. During the judgment task, they were submitted, in different blocks, to a baseline, an articulatory suppression, and a manipulation condition. In the last two conditions, they had to repeat a syllable continually and to manipulate a softball with their dominant hand. Results showed that articulatory suppression slowed down the processing of abstract more than that of concrete words. Overall results confirm the WAT proposal’s hypothesis that abstract concepts processing involves the mouth motor system and specifically inner speech. We discuss the implications for current theories of conceptual representation.

Abstract concepts: external influences, internal constraints, and methodological issues

“…So far, evidence is limited to a few studies. In a recent behavioural study, Fini et al ( 2021a ), ( 2021b ) have shown that articulatory suppression (continuous pronunciation of a syllable), an activity typically used to disrupt inner speech, influences more the simultaneous categorization of abstract than of concrete concepts; the same is not true for an activity involving the hand, like ball squeezing (Fini et al, 2021a ). However, the pattern is further complicated by the fact that, at least according to some authors, inner speech does not necessarily involve articulation; furthermore, so far the evidence produced is limited and not very strong (for reviews, see Langland-Hassan & Vicente, 2018 ; Lœvenbruck et al, 2018 ).…”

Concreteness ratings for 62 thousand English multiword expressions

“…-Selection of images for norming studies and the training of visual perception models (Hebart et al, 2019;Mahajan e al., 2018) -Automated text analysis (Althoff et al, 2016;Humphreys & Wang, 2018) -Estimating text sophistication (Kyle & Crossley, 2015) -Selection of stimuli for behavioral, clinical, and brain imaging studies (Anderson et al, 2017;Bailey et al, 2020;Fini et al, 2022;Pereira et al, 2018;Ponari et al, 2018;Winter et al, 2017) -Historical changes in word use (Hills & Adelman, 2015;Snefjella et al, 2019) -Evaluating (computational) models of word semantics (Hollis & Westbury, 2016;Dubossarsky et al, 2017;Köper, & Im Walde, 2016;Vankrunkelsven et al, 2018;Villani et al, 2019) -Examining the quality of word ratings (Pollock, 2018) -Factors influencing word difficulty (Cervetti et al, 2015;Puimège & Peters, 2019;Yap et al, 2015) Having concreteness norms for a good number of multiword expressions will expand the scope of these and other research topics. Below, we describe the compilation of a list of English multiword expressions.…”

Abstract Concepts, Social Interaction, and Beliefs

“…Consistent evidence shows that participants performing an image-word guessing task tend to ask more for advice from others with abstract compared to concrete words; when performing a subsequent joint action task they show more inter-individual synchrony (Fini et al, 2021a ). Furthermore, much evidence showed higher activation of the mouth motor system during abstract than concrete concepts acquisition and processing (review: Mazzuca et al, 2021 ; see also Ghio et al, 2013 ; Dreyer and Pulvermüller, 2018 ; Fini et al, 2021b ; Reggin et al, 2021 ). One possible explanation for this activation is that we might prepare to ask others for information.…”