The embodied cognition theory and the motor component of “yes” and “no” verbal responses

Sensory–motor properties of past actions bias memory in a recognition task

“…All goes as if during the guessing task participants Psychological Research had learned that colours were associated with an action via a word (i.e., Yes or No). Indeed, Brouillet et al (2010) showed that perceiving the words such as YES and NO activates a motor planning associated with ''pulling'' (associated with approach, and by extension acceptance) vs. ''pushing'' (associated with avoidance, and by extension rejection), respectively. Thus, during the recognition task the colour of the words to be judged activates automatically the motor action associated with acceptance vs. rejection.…”

“…Several studies (see Versace, Labeye, Badard, & Rose, 2009) have demonstrated that the content of memory traces is closely related to former sensory-motor activities and that this content is recovered when, in the current situation, there are cues that share various components, such as motor components (Borghi, 2004(Borghi, , 2005Borghi & Cimatti, 2010;Brouillet, Heurley, Martin, & Brouillet, 2010;Coello & Bartolo, 2012;Ellis & Tucker, 2000;Fischer & Zwaan, 2008;Glenberg & Gallese, 2012;Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002;Labeye, Oker, Badard, & Versace, 2008;Madan & Singhal, 2012a, b;Noë, 2004;Zwaan, Madden, Yaxley, & Aveyard, 2004).…”

Three Patterns of Motion Which Change the Perception of Emotional Faces

“…Indeed, theories of the embodied cognition (e.g., Barsalou, 1999) gave rise to findings which clearly show congruency effects between certain types of executed actions, or even simulated actions, and experienced emotional dynamics. These congruency effects could be illustrated as following: an approach movement (e.g., pulling a lever) was faster when positive feelings were experienced whereas an avoidance movement (e.g., pushing a lever) was faster when negative feelings were experienced (Alexopoulos & Ric, 2007;Brouillet, Heurley, Martin, & Brouillet, 2010). Similarly, Freina, Baroni, Borghi, and Nicoletti (2009) showed that participants were faster in reaching an away button when reading positive words whereas they were faster in pulling their hand back to their body when reading negative words.…”

Mechanisms of embodiment

“…Sensorimotor simulation may happen offline ( Niedenthal et al, 2005 ; Körner et al, 2015 ) in the absence of a bodily state or action. Research has shown that retrieving an object from memory, and thinking or imagining an object generates responses in the body that show similarities to the responses that would occur if the object were present ( Brouillet et al, 2010 ). Such an offline embodiment effect was demonstrated in a study conducted by Tucker and Ellis (1998) .…”