The Embodied Cognition Literature Michael J. Spivey Department of Cognitive Science University of California, Merced 16th International Summer School in Cognitive Science, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2009 …cont’d

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Motor Properties Influence Vision Visual Properties Influence Concepts Language Influences Visual Properties Language and Motor Influence Each Other Your Entire Body Participates in Thought

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Scheerer & Lyons (1957)

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Concepts Haptic Oculo motor Visual Oro- Facial Auditory Linguistic Skeletal motor Memory

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Motor Properties Influence Vision Visual Properties Influence Concepts Language Influences Visual Properties Language and Motor Influence Each Other Your Entire Body Participates in Thought

Barsalou, Solomon, & Wu (1999) List the features of a watermelon Large Green Sweet List the features of half a watermelon Red Sweet Seeds

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Concepts Haptic Oculo motor Visual Oro- Facial Auditory Linguistic Skeletal motor Memory

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Motor Properties Influence Vision Visual Properties Influence Concepts Language Influences Visual Properties Language and Motor Influence Each Other Your Entire Body Participates in Thought

Stimulus-Response Compatibility Tucker & Ellis (1998)

Stimulus-Response Compatibility Tucker & Ellis (1998)

Stimulus-Response Compatibility Tucker & Ellis (1998)

Stimulus-Response Compatibility Tucker & Ellis (1998)

The Importance of Being Somatosensory Input Bosbach, Cole, Prinz, Knoblich (2005)

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Concepts Haptic Oculo motor Visual Oro- Facial Auditory Linguistic Skeletal motor Memory

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Motor Properties Influence Vision Visual Properties Influence Concepts Language Influences Visual Properties Language and Motor Influence Each Other Your Entire Body Participates in Thought

Mental Simulations Stanfield & Zwaan (2001) John put the pencil in the cup. John put the pencil in the drawer.

Mental Simulations Zwaan, Stanfield & Yaxley (2001) The ranger saw the eagle in the sky. The ranger saw the eagle in the nest.

Mental Simulations Zwaan, Madden, Yaxley, & Aveyard (2004) The pitcher hurled the softball at you. You hurled the softball at the pitcher.

Mental Simulations Meteyard, Bahrami, & Vigliocco (2007) “bomb, drop, fall…” “climb, rise, fly…” “cook, sew, write…” Upward: Control: Downward:

Mental Simulations Meteyard, Bahrami, & Vigliocco (2007) “bomb, drop, fall…” “climb, rise, fly…” “cook, sew, write…” Upward: Control: Downward:

Mental Simulations Meteyard, Bahrami, & Vigliocco (2007) “bomb, drop, fall…” “climb, rise, fly…” “cook, sew, write…” Upward: Control: Downward:

Verb Image Schemas An intimate relationship between language and space –Language is embodied and metaphorical (Gibbs, 2006; Lakoff, 1999) –Spatial registration hypothesis (Chatterjee, 2001; Coslett, 1999) –Language is not describable without reference to cognitive processes such as attentional mechanisms (Langacker, 1991; Talmy, 1983) –Perceptual symbol systems: cognitive representations are schematics, or simulations of perceptual experiences (Barsalou, 1999) Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Verb Image Schemas - Offline Data Forced Choice Norming Study Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Verb Image Schemas Free Drawing Norming Study Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Verb Image Schemas Did subjects agree with each other? –70% agreement in forced choice; Std errors about 10˚ in freeform. Did the tasks tap the same representation? –Axis/aspect angle correlation, R = 0.71 Did they agree with linguistic intuitions? –Significant effect of expected axis in both studies

Verb Image Schemas - Online Data Experiment 1 - Visual discrimination –Hypothesis: comprehending a verb will activate a form of spatial representation that will be extended along either a horizontal or vertical axis, as shown by norming data. –Non-compatible mental imagery will interfere with the detection or discrimination of overlapping visual stimuli (Perky, 1910; Craver & Arterberry, 2001) –Participants presented with a spoken sentence containing a horizontal or vertical verb, and identified a rapidly flashed visual stimulus. Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Verb Image Schemas - Online Data Performance on the visual task was impaired when the visual stimulus appeared along the axis of the verb’s image schema Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Verb Image Schemas - Online Data Experiment 2 - Memory Hypothesis: the spatial structure associated with a verb will influence the encoding of visual stimuli Imagery improves memory (Paivio, 1969), and visual stimuli are remembered better when they are presented in the same spatial locations at presentation and test (Santa, 1977; Zimmer 1998) Participants heard a sentence and saw pictures of the agent and patient of the sentence, presented centrally. At a later test stage, they were shown pairs of pictures and asked if they had been previously been presented together. At test, the pictures were presented in a horizontal or vertical alignment. Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Verb Image Schemas - Online Data Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Verb Image Schemas - Online Data Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Verb Image Schemas - Online Data At test, picture pairs were recognized faster if they were presented in the same orientation as the associated verb’s image schema Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Verb Image Schemas In two offline tasks, naïve participants categorized verbs as having a horizontal or vertical image schema There was a good degree of consistency between tasks and between participants The offline tasks provided norms for experiments involving online verb comprehension In both a visual discrimination and a memory task, reaction times showed an interaction between the horizontal/vertical nature of the verb’s image schema, and the horizontal/vertical position of the visual stimuli Such spatial effects of verb comprehension provide evidence for the perceptual-motor character of linguistic representations (see also Bergen, Lindsay, Matlock & Narayanan, 2007). Richardson, Spivey, Barsalou, & McRae (2003)

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Concepts Haptic Oculo motor Visual Oro- Facial Auditory Linguistic Skeletal motor Memory

attic basement Iconicity Affects Semantic Relatedness Judgments (Zwaan & Yaxley, 2003)

basement attic Iconicity Affects Semantic Relatedness Judgments (Zwaan & Yaxley, 2003)

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Concepts Haptic Oculo motor Visual Oro- Facial Auditory Linguistic Skeletal motor Memory

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Motor Properties Influence Vision Visual Properties Influence Concepts Language Influences Visual Properties Language and Motor Influence Each Other Your Entire Body Participates in Thought

One-Referent Context Two-Referent Context (Spivey, Tanenhaus, Eberhard, & Sedivy, 2002) “Put the apple on the towel in the box” “Put the apple that’s on the towel in the box” Ambiguous: Unambiguous:

Motor Constraints During Language Pour the egg in the bowl onto the flour. Pour the egg that’s in the bowl onto the flour. Compatible Incompatible (Chambers, Tanenhaus, & Magnuson, 2004)

Motor Constraints During Language (Chambers, Tanenhaus, & Magnuson, 2004)

Motor Facilitation During Language The Action-Sentence Compatibility Effect (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002)

Motor Facilitation During Language Close the drawer. Open the drawer. The Action-Sentence Compatibility Effect (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002)

Motor Facilitation During Language Andy delivered the pizza to you. You delivered the pizza to Andy. The Action-Sentence Compatibility Effect (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002)

Motor Facilitation During Language Liz told you the story. You told Liz the story. The Action-Sentence Compatibility Effect (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002)

Motor Facilitation During Language (For variation in the temporal dynamics, see Kaschak & Borregine, 2008) The Action-Sentence Compatibility Effect (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002)

Motor Activation During Language (Pulvermüller, 1999)

Motor Activation During Language (Pulvermüller, 1999) Language Networks

Motor Activation During Language (Pulvermüller, 1999) Language Networks Associated with Visual Objects

Motor Activation During Language (Pulvermüller, 1999) Language Networks Associated with Actions

Motor Activation During Language (Martin, Wiggs, Ungerleider, & Haxby, 1996)

Motor Activation During Language (Pulvermüller, Härle, & Hummel, 2001)

Motor Activation During Language (Pulvermüller, Härle, & Hummel, 2001)

Motor Activation During Language (Pulvermüller, Härle, & Hummel, 2001)

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Concepts Haptic Oculo motor Visual Oro- Facial Auditory Linguistic Skeletal motor Memory

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Motor Properties Influence Vision Visual Properties Influence Concepts Language Influences Visual Properties Language and Motor Influence Each Other Your Entire Body Participates in Thought

Your Entire Body Participates in Thought Subliminal Priming of Old Age (Bargh et al., 1996) Associations with Approach or Avoid Gestures (Cacioppo and colleagues) A Fleeting Moment of Zen and movement/memory Orofacial muscles influence judgments (and IAT) (Cacioppo and colleagues) Push/Pull response to pos/neg words (Chen &Bargh)

Sensorimotor Influences in Cognition Concepts Haptic Oculo motor Visual Oro- Facial Auditory Linguistic Skeletal motor Memory