Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Integrated Article

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Psychology

Supervisor

Joanisse, Marc F.

Abstract

A broad literature suggests that simulations underlie cognition, as suggested by cognitive embodiment theories (e.g., Barsalou, 2008; Pexman, 2017). Indeed, when representing concepts and during cognitive processes like reading, “perceptual, motor, and introspective states acquired during experience” (Barsalou, 2008, p. 618) are reenacted. Recent proposals suggest that this information may be differentially recruited based on whether a word’s referent is concrete (e.g., cookie) or abstract (e.g., democracy). Specifically, the affective embodiment account (AE; Kousta et al., 2011; Vigliocco et al., 2009) argues that concrete concepts are predominantly embodied through sensorimotor information, while abstract concepts are predominantly embodied through emotional and linguistic information, suggesting stronger emotional effects for abstract word processing. Despite support for these claims, questions remain about the interaction of sensorimotor and emotional information during embodiment, which this thesis addresses. First, some propose that concrete concepts elicit stronger emotional effects due to sensorimotor associations facilitating relevant emotional information (Yao et al., 2018; Kanske & Kotz, 2007). Chapter 2 presents an analysis of two large corpora containing concreteness, emotionality, sensorimotor, and reaction time (RT) data to resolve this inconsistency. The analyses demonstrate stronger emotionality effects for words that are hard to perceive sensorily, aligning with AE. In Chapter 3, this is extended through an investigation of whether words’ dominant sensory modalities prompt uniform or different emotionality effects, addressing a gap in how specific sensory systems interact with emotionality due to the prevalence of composite sensory variables like concreteness (Khanna & Cortese, 2021). Words associated with chemical senses (smell and taste) evoked less emotional interference than words associated with vision (albeit only when general perceptibility was low), suggesting that not all sensory systems interact with emotions similarly during embodiment. Lastly, Chapter 4 extends Chapter 2’s findings with an eye-tracking analysis of online reading comparing children to adults, an understudied area in embodiment research (Pexman, 2017). While both groups showed consistency in later, integrative processing, only adults used emotional information to compensate for weak sensorimotor availability in early, lexical access processing. These findings support AE and underscore the importance of sensorimotor and emotional information in embodiment across the lifespan, while perhaps also reflecting adults’ greater language experience. Together, this thesis clarifies the roles of sensorimotor and emotional information in embodiment and how readers rely on this information from youth to adulthood.

Summary for Lay Audience

When we learn words and concepts, we do not simply learn dictionary definitions; instead, research indicates that our understanding and processing of words involve mental simulations of sensorimotor and emotional experiences, known as cognitive embodiment. For example, when reading the word "cookie", one might imagine its taste or smell. This thesis sought to improve understanding of the relationship between sensorimotor and emotional experiences in embodiment. In Chapter 2, I found that words that are harder to sensorily perceive show stronger emotional effects, suggesting more reliance on emotions for abstract words. In Chapter 3, I investigated whether specific senses (smell, taste, and vision) affect emotional responses differently. I found that words related to taste and smell caused less emotional interference than visual words, but only when the words were generally harder to perceive, suggesting that different senses interact with emotions in unique ways. Then, in Chapter 4, I compared how children and adults read and process words using eye-tracking. While both groups used emotional information to help incorporate abstract words’ meanings into broader sentence contexts (especially for uncommon words, e.g., ablate), only adults did this when recognizing individual words for the first time, perhaps due to their greater language experience.

Overall, this thesis shows that both sensorimotor and emotional information are crucial for understanding language from childhood to adulthood, which helps clarify how our brains use experiences to understand language throughout our lives.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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