Perception of motion affects language processing

Complementarity of Space and Time in Distance Representations

“…For example, to represent a chair, people simulate the multimodal experience of its shape, size, color, aesthetics, comfort, etc., but also actions taken toward chairs in the context of the surrounding space, as well as any agents, objects, and events relevant to a particular situation. The theories of mental simulations are supported by a large number of experimental studies (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002;Zwaan, Madden, Yaxley & Aveyard, 2004;Kaschak et al, 2005;Zwaan & Taylor, 2006;see Zwaan & Pecher, 2012 for a recent review with replicated experiments). They indicate that when processing linguistic expressions of motion events people unconsciously simulate a variety of implied perceptual and motor details, such as the orientation and shape of the described object, as well as the axis, direction or rotation of movement.…”

An Exception to Mental Simulation: No Evidence for Embodied Odor Language

“…Instead, mental simulation should occur automatically and implicitly. This approach is in line with Wilson's (2002) fourth type of embodiment—that is, offline cognition is “body based.” Most evidence for such simulation, however, has focused on the dominant perceptual modality of vision (e.g., Kaschak et al., 2005; Martin, Haxby, Lalonde, Wiggs, & Ungerleider, 1995; Meteyard, Bahrami, & Vigliocco, 2007; Meteyard, Zokaei, Bahrami, & Vigliocco, 2008; Pulvermuller & Hauk, 2006), with the “lower senses,” such as smell, neglected. To understand the evocative olfactory experience invoked by Edward Thomas’s words above, do we also mentally simulate?…”

Verbs in space: Axis and direction of motion norms for 299 English verbs

“…In line with previ-2008). Conversely, sensibility or grammaticality judgments of sentences describing motion were found to be slower when paired with the perception of congruent dynamic motion (Kaschak et al, 2005;Kaschak et al, 2006). There is clearly much work to be done in order to bring together these different findings and to explore where and how such interactions take place; we hope that by our making these norms available, consistent item sets can be developed and tested.…”

“…We were interested in the lexical representation of verbs (events) rather than nouns (objects) and focused on motion events as a promising area for exploring the links that connect language, perception, and action that are at the core of embodied theories (Bergen, Lindsay, Matlock, & Narayanan, 2007;Kaschak et al, 2005;Kaschak, Zwaan, Aveyard, & Yaxley, 2006;Meteyard et al, 2007;Meteyard et al, 2008;Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae, 2003). We embarked on a large-scale norming procedure for a large number of verbs that were selected for their potential motion content.…”

“…In a study that used video of actual motion rather than a spatial or visual approximation, Kaschak et al (2005) presented sentences aurally for grammaticality or sensibility judgments, while black-and-white graphics were displayed on a screen. The sentences described vertical or egocentric motion (e.g., upward, The smoke rose into the sky; away from the body, You backed out of the driveway), and the graphics depicted motion in two planes (upward or downward vertical motion and motion toward or away from the observer).…”