Embodied language production: sensorimotor activations and interoceptive sensibility influence which words we choose when speaking

Abstract

We know little about the factors influencing which words we choose during lexical selection. In two experiments we investigated whether (re)activations of experiential traces of space have an impact on language production. Participants performed up- and downward head movements while listening to sentence fragments describing situations (e.g. ‘You are at the beach and you see…’). When reaching the upward/downward head position they completed the sentence with a freely chosen noun. A different group of participants rated the spatial location of the produced word’s referents. We found that the head movements influenced participant’s lexical choices. After upward movements the produced words were rated to be located higher up in space compared to downward movements. Furthermore, higher scores in interoceptive sensibility as measured using the attention regulation scale from the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness questionnaire (Mehling et al., 2018) lead to an increased effect of head movement on the spatial properties of the produced nouns. We conclude that sensorimotor activations are among the meaning facets that guide which words we chose when speaking. The tendency to verbally express embodied meaning is enhanced with higher levels of interoceptive sensibility, suggesting that interoception may be a key to understand interindividual differences in how we express our experiences and feelings when we speak.

Experience-driven meaning affects lexical choices during language production

“…New data from an experiment in which we investigated whether body posture changes influence lexical choices and where we used most of the stimuli from Experiment 2 further support this interpretation. In this study, there was a significant difference between nouns produced after upward head movements compared with downward head movements, in line with the hypotheses (Vogt et al, 2022). The absence of an effect of physical cues speaks against a high susceptibility for experientially grounded aspects on lexical access during language production.…”

“…We replicated the effects of sentence spatial properties on the spatial properties of produced nouns which are the focus of this article. In addition, we found an effect of head movement on the locations of produced nouns in this study which we interpret as evidence for the position that a substantial amount of experiential reactivation is needed to have an influence on lexical access (Vogt et al, 2022).…”