Grounding language in action

@article{Glenberg2002GroundingLI,
  title={Grounding language in action},
  author={Arthur M. Glenberg and Michael P. Kaschak},
  journal={Psychonomic Bulletin \& Review},
  year={2002},
  volume={9},
  pages={558-565}
}
We report a new phenomenon associated with language comprehension: theaction—sentence compatibility effect (ACE). Participants judged whether sentences were sensible by making a response that required moving toward or away from their bodies. When a sentence implied action in one direction (e.g., “Close the drawer” implies action away from the body), the participants had difficulty making a sensibility judgment requiring a response in the opposite direction. The ACE was demonstrated for three… 
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1,910 Citations
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1,910 Citations

Inferences about action engage action systems
The Action-Sentence Compatibility Effect in ASL: the role of semantics vs. perception*
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A significant congruency effect relative to the verb’s semantics rather than to the perceived motion indicates that (a) the motor system is involved in the comprehension of a visual–manual language, and (b) motor simulations for sign language are modulated by verb semanticsrather than by the perceived visual motion of the hands.
Comprehending Sentences With the Body: Action Compatibility in British Sign Language?
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Results suggest that the richer contextual information provided by BSL sentences versus written or spoken English may reduce the need for action simulation in comprehension, at least when the event described does not map completely onto the signer's own body.
Taking Action: A Cross-Modal Investigation of Discourse-Level Representations
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Two experiments that used a cross-modal priming paradigm to investigate how humans represent the relations between events point toward common representations activated by motor sequences and discourse-semantic relations, and further the understanding of the mental representation of discourse structure.
The Action-Sentence Compatibility Effect: It's All in the Timing
TLDR
Results show that the ACE arises only when participants have the opportunity to plan their motor response while they are processing the sentence, and how the time at which one prepares the motor response required for the sensibility judgment affects the magnitude of the ACE is explored.
The Action-Sentence Compatibility Effect in Japanese Sentences
  • S. Awazu
  • Psychology
    Perceptual and motor skills
  • 2011
TLDR
Action-sentence compatibility effect is assessed in Japanese, an SOV language, and in foot responses, where reaction times were significantly faster when there was congruity between theeffector described in the sentences and the effector actually used for the response.
Temporal Dynamics of the Action–Sentence Compatibility Effect
TLDR
The results show that the ACE occurs when the motor response is executed at an early point in the comprehension of the sentence, disappears for a time, and then reappears when the Motor Response is executed right before the end of the sentences.
How the Context Matters. Literal and Figurative Meaning in the Embodied Language Paradigm
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The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that embodied simulation occurring during linguistic processing is contextually modulated to the extent that the same sentence, depending on the context of utterance, leads to the activation of different effector-specific brain motor areas.
Body part representations in verbal semantics
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This robust interference effect, whereby a shared effector slows discrimination, shows that language understanders activate effector-specific neurocognitive representations during both picture perception and action word understanding.
Action in cognition: The case of language
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…
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