Data-driven computational models reveal perceptual simulation in word processing [post]

Marco Alessandro Petilli, Fritz Günther, Alessandra Vergallito, Marco Ciapparelli, Marco Marelli
2019 unpublished
In its strongest formulation, embodied cognition claims that "concepts are made up of sensorimotor information". Following such equivalence, perceptual properties of objects should automatically and consistently influence processing even in purely linguistic tasks. Previous studies tested this prediction in lexical priming tasks, but they did not observe perceptual influence on participants' performances. Here, we further investigated this topic by applying an innovative method expected to
more » ... ase the sensitivity in detecting such perceptual effects. Specifically, we adopted an objective, data-driven computational approach to independently quantify vision-based and text-based similarities for prime-target pairs on a continuous scale. We tested whether these measures predicted behavioral performance in a lexical priming megastudy, with various experimental settings. Visual similarity was found to facilitate performances, but a dissociation between language-based and vision-based effects was also observed. Thus, perceptual properties automatically facilitate word processing, but the behavioral dissociation challenges the embodied claim of sensorimotor and conceptual equivalence.
doi:10.31234/osf.io/98z72 fatcat:tbhncz6duzfptkt4aahomyblje