How does simulation of an observed external body state influence categorisation of an easily graspable object?

Motor fluency makes it possible to integrate the components of the trace in memory and facilitates its re-construction

The aim of this work was to test the hypothesis that motor fluency should help the integration of the components of the trace and therefore its re-construction. In the encoding phase of each of the three experiments we conducted, a word to be remembered appeared colored in blue or purple. Participants had to read these words aloud and, at the same time, execute a gesture in their ipsilateral (fluent gesture) or contralateral space (non-fluent gesture), according to the color of the word. The aim of the first experiment was to show that the words associated with a fluent gesture during the encoding phase were more easily recognized than those associated with a non-fluent gesture. The results obtained supported the hypothesis. In the second experiment, our objective was to show that the fluency of a gesture performed during encoding in order to associate a word with a color can facilitate the integration of the word with its color. Here again, the results obtained supported the hypothesis. While in Experiment 2 we tested the effect of motor fluency during encoding on word-color integration, the objective of Experiment 3 was to show that motor fluency was integrated in the word-color trace and contributed to the re-construction of the trace. The results obtained supported the hypothesis. Taken together, these findings lead us to believe that traces are not only traces of the processes that gave rise to them, but also traces of the way in which the processes took place.

From Affordances to Abstract Words: The Flexibility of Sensorimotor Grounding

The sensorimotor system plays a critical role in several cognitive processes. Here, we review recent studies documenting this interplay at different levels. First, we concentrate on studies that have shown how the sensorimotor system is flexibly involved in interactions with objects. We report evidence demonstrating how social context and situations influence affordance activation, and then focus on tactile and kinesthetic components in body-object interactions. Then, we turn to word use, and review studies that have shown that not only concrete words, but also abstract words are grounded in the sensorimotor system. We report evidence that abstract concepts activate the mouth effector more than concrete concepts, and discuss this effect in light of studies on adults, children, and infants. Finally, we pinpoint possible sensorimotor mechanisms at play in the acquisition and use of abstract concepts. Overall, we show that the involvement of the sensorimotor system is flexibly modulated by context, and that its role can be integrated and flanked by that of other systems such as the linguistic system. We suggest that to unravel the role of the sensorimotor system in cognition, future research should fully explore the complexity of this intricate, and sometimes slippery, relation.

When the Action to Be Performed at the Stage of Retrieval Enacts Memory of Action Verbs

According to the embodied approach of language, concepts are grounded in sensorimotor mental states, and when we process language, the brain simulates some of the perceptions and actions that are involved when interacting with real objects. Moreover, several studies have highlighted that cognitive performances are dependent on the overlap between the motor action simulated and the motor action required by the task. On the other hand, in the field of memory, the role of action is under debate. The aim of this work was to show that performing an action at the stage of retrieval influences memory performance in a recognition task (experiment 1) and a cued recall task (experiment 2), even if the participants were never instructed to consider the implied action. The results highlighted an action-based memory effect at the retrieval stage. These findings contribute to the debate about the implication of motor system in action verb processing and its role for memory.