Implied Spatial Meaning and Visuospatial Bias: Conceptual Processing Influences Processing of Visual Targets and Distractors

Remembering spatial words: Sensorimotor simulation affects verbal recognition memory

Previous evidence shows that words with implicit spatial meaning or metaphorical spatial associations are perceptually simulated and can guide attention to associated locations (e.g., bird-upward location). In turn, simulated representations interfere with visual perception at an associated location. The present study investigates the effect of spatial associations on short-term verbal recognition memory to disambiguate between modal and amodal accounts of spatial interference effects across two experiments. Participants in both experiments encoded words presented in congruent and incongruent locations. Congruent and incongruent locations were based on an independent norming task. In Experiment 1, an auditorily presented word probed participants' memory as they were visually cued to either the original location of the probe word or a diagonal location at retrieval. In Experiment 2, there was no cue at retrieval but a neutral encoding condition in which words normed to central locations were shown. Results show that spatial associations affected memory performance although spatial information was neither relevant nor necessary for successful retrieval: Words in Experiment 1 were retrieved more accurately when there was a visual cue in the congruent location at retrieval but only if they were encoded in a non-canonical position. A visual cue in the congruent location slowed down memory performance when retrieving highly imageable words. With no cue at retrieval (Experiment 2), participants were better at remembering spatially congruent words as opposed to neutral words. Results provide evidence in support of sensorimotor simulation in verbal memory and a perceptual competition account of spatial interference effect.

When words are upside down: Language-space associations in children and adults

The nonlinguistic sensorimotor experiences and contexts that accompany language learning are often assumed to play an integral role in meaning representation. However, despite embodied models of language comprehension being well established in the literature, evidence is mainly derived from adult studies. For example, it has been shown that for adult comprehenders there is a close link between language and space, resulting in automatic reactivation of a referent's spatial location during word processing. In the current study, we investigated whether this link can also be found in young children (4;8-7;5 years;months). In a Stroop-like paradigm, our participants responded to a colored circle on the screen with an upward or downward arm movement after auditorily perceiving a task-irrelevant noun. We chose noun's with referents that are typically located either in upper or lower space (e.g., "sun" vs. "shoe"). Although it was not necessary to process the meaning of the nouns in order to fulfill the task, we found a spatial compatibility effect that was similar to language-space associations previously reported for adult participants. We conclude that sensorimotor experiences in the spatial domain seem to play a role during meaning processing from early childhood onward, a finding crucial for embodied models of language comprehension.

Is the sunny side up and the dark side down? Effects of stimulus type and valence on a spatial detection task

In verbal communication, affective information is commonly conveyed to others through spatial terms (e.g. in "I am feeling down", negative affect is associated with a lower spatial location). This study used a target location discrimination task with neutral, positive and negative stimuli (words, facial expressions, and vocalizations) to test the automaticity of the emotion-space association, both in the vertical and horizontal spatial axes. The effects of stimulus type on emotion-space representations were also probed. A congruency effect (reflected in reaction times) was observed in the vertical axis: detection of upper targets preceded by positive stimuli was faster. This effect occurred for all stimulus types, indicating that the emotion-space association is not dependent on sensory modality and on the verbal content of affective stimuli.