Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T11:28:54.351Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Action in cognition: The case of language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2014

Lawrence J. Taylor  and
Rolf A. Zwaan
Lawrence J. Taylor*
Affiliation:
Erasmus University of Rotterdam
Rolf A. Zwaan
Affiliation:
Erasmus University of Rotterdam
*
Correspondence address: Lawrence J. Taylor, Department of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL-3000 DR, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. E-mail: Lawrence.John.Taylor@gmail.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Empirical research has shown that the processing of words and sentences is accompanied by activation of the brain's motor system in language users. The degree of precision observed in this activation seems to be contingent upon (1) the meaning of a linguistic construction and (2) the depth with which readers process that construction. In addition, neurological evidence shows a correspondence between a disruption in the neural correlates of overt action and the disruption of semantic processing of language about action. These converging lines of evidence can be taken to support the hypotheses that motor processes (1) are recruited to understand language that focuses on actions and (2) contribute a unique element to conceptual representation. This article explores the role of this motor recruitment in language comprehension. It concludes that extant findings are consistent with the theorized existence of multimodal, embodied representations of the referents of words and the meaning carried by language. Further, an integrative conceptualization of “fault tolerant comprehension” is proposed.

Keywords

language comprehensionembodied cognitionmultimodalityconceptual representationaction
Type
Research Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 45 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bak, T. H., O'Donovan, D. G., Xuereb, J. H., Boniface, S. & Hodges, J. R.. 2001. Selective impairment of verb processing associated with pathological changes in Brodmann areas 44 and 45 in the motor neuron disease-dementia-aphasia syndrome. Brain 124. 103–120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barsalou, L. W. 1999. Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22. 577–609.Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W. 2008. Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology 59. 617–645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beilock, S. L., Lyons, I. M., Mattarella-Micke, A., Nusbaum, H. C. & Small, S. L.. 2008. Sports experience changes the neural processing of action language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(36). 13269–13273.Google Scholar
Boroditsky, L. 2000. Metaphoric structuring: Understanding time through spatial metaphors. Cognition 75(1). 1–28.Google Scholar
Boulenger, V., Roy, A. C., Paulignan, Y., Deprez, V., Jeannerod, M. & Nazier, T. A.. 2006. Cross-talk between language processes and overt motor behavior in the first 200 msec of processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 18(10). 1607–1615.Google Scholar
Boulenger, V., Mechtouff, L., Thobois, S., Broussolle, E., Jeannerod, M. & Nazir, T. A.. in press. Word processing in Parkinson's disease is impaired for action verbs but not for concrete nouns. Neuropsychologia.Google Scholar
Bub, D. N., Masson, M. E. J. & Cree, G. S.. 2008. Evocation of functional and volumetric knowledge by objects and words. Cognition 106(1). 27–58.Google Scholar
Buccino, G., Riggio, L., Melli, G., Binkofski, F., Gallese, V. & Rizzolatti, G.. 2005. Listening to action-related sentences modulates the activity of the motor system: A combined TMS and behavioral study. Cognitive Brain Research 24(3). 355–363.Google Scholar
Calvo-Merino, B., Glaser, D. E., Grezes, J., Passingham, P. E. & Haggard, P.. 2005. Action observation and acquired motor skills: An fMRI study with expert dancers. Cerebral Cortex 15. 1243–1249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Casasanto, D. & Dijkstra, K.. submitted. Motor action and emotional memory.Google Scholar
Filimon, F., Nelson, J. D., Hagler, D. J. & Sereno, M. I.. 2007. Human cortical representations for reaching: Mirror neurons for execution, observation, and imagery. Neurolmage 37. 1315–1328.Google Scholar
Fischer, M. H. & Zwaan, R. A.. 2008. Embodied language: A review of the role of the motor system in language comprehension. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 61. 825–850.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fodor, J. A. 1983. The modularity of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gentilucci, M. & Gangitano, M.. 1998. Influence of automatic word reading on motor control. European Journal of Neuroscience 10. 752–756.Google Scholar
Ghazanfar, A. A. & Schroeder, C. E.. 2006. Is neocortex essentially multisensory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 10. 278–285.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gigerenzer, G. & Goldstein, D. G.. 1996. Reasoning the fast and frugal way: Models of bounded rationality. Psychological Review 103(4). 650–669.Google Scholar
Glenberg, A. M. 1997. What memory is for. Behavioral and brain sciences 20. 1–55.Google Scholar
Glenberg, A. M. & Kaschak, M. P.. 2002. Grounding language in action. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9. 558–565.Google Scholar
Glenberg, A. M. & Robertson, D. A.. 1999. Indexical understanding of instructions. Discourse Processes 28(1). 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glenberg, A. M. & Robertson, D. A.. 2000. Symbol grounding and meaning: A comparison of high-dimensional and embodied theories of meaning. Journal of Memory and Language 43. 379–401.Google Scholar
Glover, S. & Dixon, P.. 2002. Semantics afect the planning but not control of grasping. Experimental Brain Research 146. 383–387.Google Scholar
Glover, S., Rosenbaum, D. A., Graham, J. & Dixon, P.. 2004. Grasping the meaning of words. Experimental Brain Research 154. 103–108.Google Scholar
Harnad, S. 1990. The symbol grounding problem. Physica D 42. 335–346.Google Scholar
Hauk, O., Shtyrov, Y., & Pulvermüller, F.. 2008. The time course of action and action-word comprehension in the human brain as revealed by neurophysiology. Journal of Physiology, Paris 102. 50–58.Google Scholar
Hebb, D. O. 1949. The organization of behavior: A neuropsychological theory. John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Hintzman, D. L. 1986. “Schema abstraction” in a multiple-trace memory model. Psychological Review 93(4). 411–428.Google Scholar
Jackendof, R. 1972. Semantic interpretation in generative grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kemmerer, D., Castillo, J. G., Talavage, T., Patterson, S. & Wiley, C.. 2008. Neuroanatomical distribution of five semantic components of verbs: Evidence from fMRI. Brain and Language 107(1). 16–43.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M.. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, R. W. 2001. Discourse in cognitive grammar. Cognitive Linguistics 21(2). 143–188.Google Scholar
Lindemann, O., Stenneken, P., Schie, H. T. van & Bekkering, H.. 2006. Semantic activation in action planning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 32. 633–643.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. 2005. The emergence of grammar from perspective taking. In Pecher, D. & Zwaan, R. A. (eds.), Grounding cognition: The role of perception and action in memory, language, and thinking, 198–223. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahon, B. Z. & Caramazza, A.. 2008. A critical look at the embodied cognition hypothesis and a new proposal for grounding conceptual content. Journal of Phsysiology, Paris 102. 59–70.Google Scholar
Myung, J., Blumstein, S. E. & Sedivy, J. C.. 2006. Playing on the typewriter, typing on the piano: Manipulation knowledge of objects. Cognition 98. 223–243.Google Scholar
Nakamura, W. 1997. A cognitive approach to English adverbs. Linguistics 35. 247–287.Google Scholar
Penfield, W. & Rasmussen, T.. 1950. The cerebral cortex of man. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google ScholarPubMed
Postle, N., McMahon, K. L., Ashton, R., Meredith, M. & Zubicaray, G. I. de. in press. Action word meaning representations incytoarchitectonically defined primary and premotor cortices. Neurolmage.Google Scholar
Pulvermüller, F. 2004. Neurophysiological distinction of action words in the fronto-central cortex. Human Brain Mapping 21(3). 191–204.Google Scholar
Pulvermüller, F. 2005. Brain mechanisms linking language and action. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6. 576–582.Google Scholar
Pulvermüller, F., Hauk, O., Nikulin, V. V. & Ilmoniemi, R. J.. 2005. Functional links between motor and language systems. European Journal of Neuroscience 21. 793–797.Google Scholar
Raposo, A., Moss, H. E., Stamatakis, E. A. & Tyler, L. K.. 2009. Modulation of motor and premotor cortices by actions, action words and action sentences. Neuropsychologia 47(2). 388–396.Google Scholar
Rüschemeyer, S., Brass, M. & Friederici, A. D.. 2007. Comprehending: Neural correlates of processing verbs with motor stems. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19. 855–865.Google Scholar
Sato, M., Mengarelli, M., Riggio, L., Gallese, V. & Buccino, G.. 2008. Task related modulation of the motor system during language processing. Brain and Language 105(2). 83–90.Google Scholar
Searle, J. R. 1980. Minds, brains, and programs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3(3). 417–457.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. J. & Zwaan, R. A.. 2008. Motor resonance and linguistic focus. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 61. 896–904.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. J., Ari, S. Lev & Zwaan, R. A.. 2008. Inferences about action engage action systems. Brain and Language 107(1). 62–67.Google Scholar
Tomasino, B., Werner, C. J., Weiss, P. H. & Fink, G. R.. 2007. Stimulus properties matter more than perspective: An fMRI study of mental imagery and silent reading of action phrases. Neuroimage 36. T128–T141.Google Scholar
van Dijk, T. A. & Kintsch, W.. 1983. Strategies in discourse comprehension. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A. 2004. The immersed experiencer: toward an embodied theory of language comprehension. In Ross, B. H. (ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation, 35–62. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A. & Radvansky, G. A.. 1998. Situation models in language and memory. Psychological Bulletin 123. 162–185.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A. & Taylor, L. J.. 2006. Seeing, acting, understanding: motor resonance in language comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 135. 1–11.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A., Taylor, L. J. & de Boer, M.. in press. Motor resonance as a function of narrative time: Further tests of the linguistic focus hypothesis. Brain and Language.Google Scholar