Forming associations between language and sensorimotor traces during novel word learning

Öttl, Birgit; Dudschig, Carolin; Kaup, Barbara

doi:10.1017/langcog.2016.5

Cited by 30 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…This activation is then followed by the activation of simulations (i.e., experiential traces) associated to the perceived word on the one hand, but also the activated linguistic forms on the other hand. Therefore, we argue that direct experience with a word's referent is sufficient to establish grounding in sensorimotor experience (Öttl et al., ), but it is not necessary for every word.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Afterwards, a test phase as used by Öttl et al. () was employed, in which participants had to react towards these novel words with upwards or downwards hand movements. We assumed that participants learn to categorize the novel words as either upwards‐ or downwards‐related words.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to identify an adequate sample size for our experiments, we performed a power analysis based on the data by Öttl et al. (), since we used an identical test phase, as well as a learning phase in which novel words were learned. Based on the parameters estimated form this data, we simulated n new data sets (representing n new particpants) and performed the anova analysis reported by Öttl et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the parameters estimated form this data, we simulated n new data sets (representing n new particpants) and performed the anova analysis reported by Öttl et al. () on this simulated data. This process was repeated 1,000 times for each value of n .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More direct evidence that such findings can indeed be attributed to experiential traces of perception and action being encoded together with linguistic input comes from a recent study by Öttl, Dudschig, and Kaup (). In this study, participants had to learn novel word labels for novel objects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Symbol Grounding Without Direct Experience: Do Words Inherit Sensorimotor Activation From Purely Linguistic Context?

Günther¹,

Dudschig²,

Kaup³

2017

Cognitive Science

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Theories of embodied cognition assume that concepts are grounded in non-linguistic, sensorimotor experience. In support of this assumption, previous studies have shown that upwards response movements are faster than downwards movements after participants have been presented with words whose referents are typically located in the upper vertical space (and vice versa for downwards responses). This is taken as evidence that processing these words reactivates sensorimotor experiential traces. This congruency effect was also found for novel words, after participants learned these words as labels for novel objects that they encountered either in their upper or lower visual field. While this indicates that direct experience with a word's referent is sufficient to evoke said congruency effects, the present study investigates whether this direct experience is also a necessary condition. To this end, we conducted five experiments in which participants learned novel words from purely linguistic input: Novel words were presented in pairs with real up- or down-words (Experiment 1); they were presented in natural sentences where they replaced these real words (Experiment 2); they were presented as new labels for these real words (Experiment 3); and they were presented as labels for novel combined concepts based on these real words (Experiment 4 and 5). In all five experiments, we did not find any congruency effects elicited by the novel words; however, participants were always able to make correct explicit judgements about the vertical dimension associated to the novel words. These results suggest that direct experience is necessary for reactivating experiential traces, but this reactivation is not a necessary condition for understanding (in the sense of storing and accessing) the corresponding aspects of word meaning.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Symbol Grounding Without Direct Experience: Do Words Inherit Sensorimotor Activation From Purely Linguistic Context?

Günther¹,

Dudschig²,

Kaup³

2017

Cognitive Science

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Building semantic memory from embodied and distributional language experience

Davis

Yee

2021

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Humans seamlessly make sense of a rapidly changing environment, using a seemingly limitless knowledgebase to recognize and adapt to most situations we encounter. This knowledgebase is called semantic memory. Embodied cognition theories suggest that we represent this knowledge through simulation: understanding the meaning of coffee entails re-instantiating the neural states involved in touching, smelling, seeing, and drinking coffee. Distributional semantic theories suggest that we are sensitive to statistical regularities in natural language, and that a cognitive mechanism picks up on these regularities and transforms them into usable semantic representations reflecting the contextual usage of language. These appear to present contrasting views on semantic memory, but do they? Recent years have seen a push toward combining these approaches under a common framework. These hybrid approaches augment our understanding of semantic memory in important ways, but current versions remain unsatisfactory in part because they treat sensory-perceptual and distributional-linguistic data as interacting but distinct types of data that must be combined. We synthesize several approaches which, taken together, suggest that linguistic and embodied experience should instead be considered as inseparably entangled: just as sensory and perceptual systems are reactivated to understand meaning, so are experience-based representations endemic to linguistic processing; further, sensory-perceptual experience is susceptible to the same distributional principles as language experience. This conclusion produces a characterization of semantic memory that accounts for the interdependencies between linguistic and embodied data 2 that arise across multiple timescales, giving rise to concept representations that reflect our shared and unique experiences.

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The limits of automatic sensorimotor processing during word processing: investigations with repeated linguistic experience, memory consolidation during sleep, and rich linguistic learning contexts

Günther

Press

Dudschig

et al. 2021

Psychological Research

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While a number of studies have repeatedly demonstrated an automatic activation of sensorimotor experience during language processing in the form of action-congruency effects, as predicted by theories of grounded cognition, more recent research has not found these effects for words that were just learned from linguistic input alone, without sensorimotor experience with their referents. In the present study, we investigate whether this absence of effects can be attributed to a lack of repeated experience and consolidation of the associations between words and sensorimotor experience in memory. To address these issues, we conducted four experiments in which (1 and 2) participants engaged in two separate learning phases in which they learned novel words from language alone, with an intervening period of memory-consolidating sleep, and (3 and 4) we employed familiar words whose referents speakers have no direct experience with (such as plankton). However, we again did not observe action-congruency effects in subsequent test phases in any of the experiments. This indicates that direct sensorimotor experience with word referents is a necessary requirement for automatic sensorimotor activation during word processing.

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Forming associations between language and sensorimotor traces during novel word learning

Cited by 30 publications

References 37 publications

Symbol Grounding Without Direct Experience: Do Words Inherit Sensorimotor Activation From Purely Linguistic Context?

Symbol Grounding Without Direct Experience: Do Words Inherit Sensorimotor Activation From Purely Linguistic Context?

Building semantic memory from embodied and distributional language experience

The limits of automatic sensorimotor processing during word processing: investigations with repeated linguistic experience, memory consolidation during sleep, and rich linguistic learning contexts

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