Embodiment and learning of abstract concepts (such as algebraic topology and regression to the mean).

This video is a proof of concept that ideas from embodied cognition can be used to understand how the brain and cognitive systems deal with very abstract concepts. The video teaches regression to the mean using three ideas. The first idea is directly related to embodied cognition: abstract concepts are grounded in perceptual, motor, and emotional systems by using successive levels of grounding within an extended procedure. The second idea is that this sort of grounding often requires formal instruction: a teacher needs to develop the sequence in which the concepts are grounded and the methods of grounding. That is, at least some abstract concepts are unlikely to be learned through an individual's unstructured interactions with the world. The third idea is that humans are hyper-social, thus making formal instruction possible. To the extent that the viewer learns the abstract concept of regression to the mean, then the video demonstrates how an embodied theory of abstract concepts could work.

Grounding (fairly) complex numerical knowledge: an educational example.

In this article, we contextualize and discuss an on-line contribution to this special issue in which a video-recorded lecture demonstrates the teaching of an abstract mathematical concept, namely regression to the mean. We first motivate the pertinence of this example from the perspective of embodied cognition. Then, we identify mechanisms of teaching that reflect embodied cognitive practices, such as the concreteness fading approach. Rather than a comprehensive review of multiple extensive literatures, this article provides the interested reader with several sources or entries into those literatures.

Culture, ecology, and grounded procedures.

We propose that grounded procedures may help explain psychological variations across cultures. Here we offer a set of novel predictions based on the interplay between the social and physical ecology, chronic sensorimotor experience, and cultural norms.

Relationships Among Motor, First, and Second Language Skills Among Bilingual Children With Language Disorders.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the significance and directions of the relationships among oral and manual fine motor skills and language abilities among Spanish-English bilingual children. If such relationships exist, this would support a shared biological influence on motor and language development. METHOD: Participants included 56 bilingual children, 24 of whom met criteria for developmental language disorder (DLD), recruited based on teacher concern for language and/or reading comprehension abilities. Students participated in a battery of baseline tests to determine motor, language, and cognitive abilities. Correlations among all variables were examined for direction of relationships. Regression models explored the predictive power of motor skills with Spanish and English language ability as the outcome measure. RESULTS: Oral fine motor abilities (diadochokinetic rate productions of /pa/ and /pata/) predicted Spanish (but not English) oral language abilities in the expected direction (i.e., faster rates were associated with better language). Manual fine motor performance on computer tapping tasks was not related to performance in either language. CONCLUSIONS: Oral fine motor abilities are related to language abilities in bilingual children, but only for the native language. We did not find reliable differences in oral and manual fine motor skills between groups of bilingual children with and without DLD. These findings support a limited role of shared biological influences on motor and language development.

Embodied Processing at Six Linguistic Granularity Levels: A Consensus Paper.

Language processing is influenced by sensorimotor experiences. Here, we review behavioral evidence for embodied and grounded influences in language processing across six linguistic levels of granularity. We examine (a) sub-word features, discussing grounded influences on iconicity (systematic associations between word form and meaning); (b) words, discussing boundary conditions and generalizations for the simulation of color, sensory modality, and spatial position; (c) sentences, discussing boundary conditions and applications of action direction simulation; (d) texts, discussing how the teaching of simulation can improve comprehension in beginning readers; (e) conversations, discussing how multi-modal cues improve turn taking and alignment; and (f) text corpora, discussing how distributional semantic models can reveal how grounded and embodied knowledge is encoded in texts. These approaches are converging on a convincing account of the psychology of language, but at the same time, there are important criticisms of the embodied approach and of specific experimental paradigms. The surest way forward requires the adoption of a wide array of scientific methods. By providing complimentary evidence, a combination of multiple methods on various levels of granularity can help us gain a more complete understanding of the role of embodiment and grounding in language processing.

A Reading Comprehension Intervention for Dual Language Learners With Weak Language and Reading Skills.

PURPOSE: We evaluated the efficacy of a reading comprehension intervention with dual language learners (DLLs) with documented English reading comprehension difficulties, half of whom had a developmental language disorder. The intervention EMBRACE (Enhanced Moved by Reading to Accelerate Comprehension in English) required children to move images on an iPad to both improve and demonstrate understanding of multichapter stories. Additionally, we determined the characteristics of students who most benefit from the intervention. METHOD: Fifty-six participants in second to fifth grades were randomly assigned to one of two groups: (a) Spanish support intervention or (b) Spanish support control. Outcome measures included performance on comprehension questions related to the intervention texts, two transfer texts with no strategy instruction, and the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests-Fourth Edition Reading Comprehension subtest administered pre- and post-intervention. RESULTS: Multilevel hierarchical linear models were used to account for nesting of question within child within classroom. For this group of DLLs, the overall intervention effect was not statistically significant. However, the intervention was most effective with narrative (vs. expository) texts and easy (vs. more difficult) texts. DLLs with lower initial English reading abilities (decoding and comprehension) benefited more from the intervention than those with stronger reading skills. CONCLUSIONS: The EMBRACE intervention has promise for use with DLLs with low baseline decoding and comprehension skills, particularly in early elementary grades. Future research should aim to match text difficulty with child skills when introducing new comprehension strategies to maximize benefit from the intervention.

A pre-registered, multi-lab non-replication of the action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE).

The Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) is a well-known demonstration of the role of motor activity in the comprehension of language. Participants are asked to make sensibility judgments on sentences by producing movements toward the body or away from the body. The ACE is the finding that movements are faster when the direction of the movement (e.g., toward) matches the direction of the action in the to-be-judged sentence (e.g., Art gave you the pen describes action toward you). We report on a pre-registered, multi-lab replication of one version of the ACE. The results show that none of the 18 labs involved in the study observed a reliable ACE, and that the meta-analytic estimate of the size of the ACE was essentially zero.

The gleam-glum effect: /i:/ versus /λ/ phonemes generically carry emotional valence.

The gleam-glum effect is a novel sound symbolic finding that words with the /i:/-phoneme (like gleam) are perceived more positive emotionally than matched words with the /Λ/-phoneme (like glum). We provide data that not only confirm the effect but also are consistent with an explanation that /i:/ and /Λ/ articulation tend to co-occur with activation of positive versus negative emotional facial musculature respectively. Three studies eliminate selection bias by including all applicable English words from the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al., 2007) and the Warriner et al. (2013) database and every possible Mandarin Pinyin combination that differ only in the middle phoneme (/i:/ vs /Λ/). In Study 1, 61 U.S. undergraduates rated monosyllabic English /i:/ words as robustly more positive than matched /Λ/ words. Study 2 analyzed the Warriner et al. (2013) valence ratings, extending the gleam-glum effect to all applicable words in the database. In Study 3, 38 U.S. participants (using English) and 37 participants in China (using Mandarin Pinyin) rated word pairs under three conditions that moderate musculature activity: Read aloud (Enhance), read silently (Control), and read silently while chewing gum (Interfere). Indeed, the effect was both replicated and was significantly larger when facial musculature was enhanced than when interfered with, and the two language populations did not significantly differ. These findings confirm a robust gleam-glum effect, despite semantic noise, in English and Mandarin Pinyin. Furthermore, these data are consistent with the hypothesis that this type of sound symbolism arises from the overlap in muscles used both in articulation and emotion expression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Cosmetic use of botulinum toxin-a affects processing of emotional language.

How does language reliably evoke emotion, as it does when people read a favorite novel or listen to a skilled orator? Recent evidence suggests that comprehension involves a mental simulation of sentence content that calls on the same neural systems used in literal action, perception, and emotion. In this study, we demonstrated that involuntary facial expression plays a causal role in the processing of emotional language. Subcutaneous injections of botulinum toxin-A (BTX) were used to temporarily paralyze the facial muscle used in frowning. We found that BTX selectively slowed the reading of sentences that described situations that normally require the paralyzed muscle for expressing the emotions evoked by the sentences. This finding demonstrates that peripheral feedback plays a role in language processing, supports facial-feedback theories of emotional cognition, and raises questions about the effects of BTX on cognition and emotional reactivity. We account for the role of facial feedback in language processing by considering neurophysiological mechanisms and reinforcement-learning theory.

Naturalizing cognition: the integration of cognitive science and biology.

Descartes drove a wedge between human cognition and biology. Cognitive neuroscience is beginning to bridge the gap, and the application of mirror neuron theory to a range of problems in psychology has demonstrated the possibility of developing an understanding that spans from neural anatomy to language and empathy.

Language-induced motor activity in bi-manual object lifting.

Language comprehension requires a simulation process that taps perception and action systems. How specific is this simulation? To address this question, participants listened to sentences referring to the lifting of light or heavy objects (e.g., pillow or chest, respectively). Then they lifted one of two boxes that were visually identical, but one was light and the other heavy. We focused on the kinematics of the initial lift (rather than reaching) because it is mostly shaped by proprioceptive features derived from weight that cannot be visually determined. Participants were slower when the weight suggested by the sentence and the weight of the box corresponded. This effect indicates that language can activate a simulation which is sensitive to intrinsic properties such as weight.

Moved by Reading in a Spanish-Speaking, Dual Language Learner Population.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an English-only version and a Spanish-support version of an embodied reading comprehension intervention (Moved by Reading) consisting of 3 stages (physical manipulation, imagined manipulation, and transfer) for Spanish-English dual language learners. Method: Sixty-one dual language learners in Arizona were randomly assigned to 4 groups (Spanish-support control, Spanish-support intervention, English-only control, and English-only intervention). Analyses of variance were used to compare control and intervention groups and to compare groups according to the language of the intervention. Results: Children in the Spanish-support intervention group significantly outperformed both control groups during the physical manipulation stage, whereas children in the English-only intervention group outperformed both control groups in the imagined manipulation stage, but there was little transfer to a new, unrelated text. Conclusions: The Moved by Reading intervention, in both its English-only and Spanish-support versions, improved performance on comprehension questions, but in different stages of the intervention. The Spanish-support version of the intervention was most effective in the physical manipulation stage, whereas the English-only version was more effective in the imagined manipulation stage. Neither version was effective in producing significant transfer effects.

Retrieving Against the Flow: Incoherence Between Optic Flow and Movement Direction Has Little Effect on Memory for Order.

Research from multiple areas in neuroscience suggests a link between self-locomotion and memory. In two free recall experiments with adults, we looked for a link between (a) memory, and (b) the coherence of movement and optic flow. In both experiments, participants heard lists of words while on a treadmill and wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset. In the first experiment, the VR scene and treadmill were stationary during encoding. During retrieval, all participants walked forward, but the VR scene was stationary, moved forward, or moved backwards. In the second experiment, during encoding all participants walked forward and viewed a forward-moving VR scene. During retrieval, all participants continued to walk forward but the VR scene was stationary, forward-moving, or backward-moving. In neither experiment was there a significant difference in the amount recalled, or output order strategies, attributable to differences in movement conditions. Thus, any effects of movement on memory are more limited than theories of hippocampal function and theories in cognitive psychology anticipate.

Emotion simulation during language comprehension.

We report a novel finding on the relation of emotion and language. Covert manipulation of emotional facial posture interacts with sentence valence when measuring the amount of time to judge valence (Experiment 1) and sensibility (Experiment 2) of the sentence. In each case, an emotion-sentence compatibility effect is found: Judgment times are faster when facial posture and sentence valence match than when they mismatch. We interpret the finding using a simulation account; that is, emotional systems contribute to language comprehension much as they do in social interaction. Because the effect was not observed on a lexical decision task using emotion-laden words (Experiment 3), we suggest that the emotion simulation affects comprehension processes beyond initial lexical access.

Contribution of Embodiment to Solving the Riddle of Infantile Amnesia.

At least since the late nineteenth century, researchers have sought an explanation for infantile amnesia (IA)-the lack of autobiographical memories dating from early childhood-and childhood amnesia (CA), faster forgetting of events up until the age of about seven. Evidence suggests that IA occurs across altricial species, and a number of studies using animal models have converged on the hypothesis that maturation of the hippocampus is an important factor. But why does the hippocampus mature at one time and not another, and how does that maturation relate to memory? Our hypothesis is rooted in theories of embodied cognition, and it provides an explanation both for hippocampal development and the end of IA. Specifically, the onset of locomotion prompts the alignment of hippocampal place cells and grid cells to the environment, which in turn facilitates the ontogeny of long-term episodic memory and the end of IA. That is, because the animal can now reliably discriminate locations, location becomes a stable cue for memories. Furthermore, as the mode of human locomotion shifts from crawling to walking, there is an additional shift in the alignment of the hippocampus that marks the beginning of adult-like episodic memory and the end of CA. Finally, given a reduction in self-locomotion and exploration with aging, the hypothesis suggests a partial explanation for cognitive decline with aging.

Few believe the world is flat: How embodiment is changing the scientific understanding of cognition.

Science has changed many of our dearly held and commonsensical (but incorrect) beliefs. For example, few still believe the world is flat, and few still believe the sun orbits the earth. Few still believe humans are unrelated to the rest of the animal kingdom, and soon few will believe human thinking is computer-like. Instead, as with all animals, our thoughts are based on bodily experiences, and our thoughts and behaviors are controlled by bodily and neural systems of perception, action, and emotion interacting with the physical and social environments. We are embodied; nothing more. Embodied cognition is about cognition formatted in sensorimotor experience, and sensorimotor systems make those thoughts dynamic. Even processes that seem abstract, such as language comprehension and goal understanding, are embodied. Thus, embodied cognition is not limited to 1 type of thought or another: It is cognition.

Response to Mahon: Unburdening cognition from abstract symbols.

B. Z. Mahon (see record 2015-22897-004) has provided a real service to those researchers investigating human cognition by clearly framing much of the debate between an embodied approach to cognition and an abstract alternative. There are several areas in which Mahon and A. M. Glenberg agree. For example, Glenberg (although not all embodiment theorists) agrees that a major question is the degree to which bodily and neural sensorimotor activity constitutes cognition. In addition, the evidence is clear that there is something akin to a spread of activation amongst systems, and the very fact of this spread makes it difficult to distinguish embodied from nonembodied positions. There are also several areas about which the authors disagree. For example, Mahon suggests that we need to consider predictions of alternative hypotheses. The alternative he offers is that there is a distinction between concepts and sensorimotor activity. Although it is reasonable to consider this alternative, there is no description of what these nonembodied concepts are in Mahon's essay, just that they are not sensorimotor. Glenberg offers a partial compromise to the argument.

Consequences of joint action: Entanglement with your partner.

Primates are expert tool users because they can adapt their body schemas to form a hand-tool joint representation that affords effective wielding. Here we extend the scope of this mechanism by proposing that humans are experts in social tasks because they can adjust their body schemas to incorporate the kinematics of partners, thus forming an interpersonal joint body schema. Participants engaged with a confederate in a 2-handed sawing task requiring each to use 1 hand. After active movement coordination, an interpersonal body schema was demonstrated in 2 ways. First, there was interference between visual stimulation near 1 person's body and vibrotactile localization on the other person's body. Second, after active movement coordination, the motor output of 1 partner (attempting to draw straight lines) was affected by the viewed actions of the other partner (drawing ovals). This adaptation of the body schema may underlie the formation of cultural groups. In fact, participants with interdependent self-construals (typical of Asian cultures) form a stronger interpersonal joint body schema than do participants with independent self-construals (typical of North American and Western European cultures).

This construction needs learned.

Four experiments are presented in which adults learned to comprehend a new syntactic construction in their native language. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that adults quickly learn to comprehend the new construction and generalize it to new verbs. Experiment 3 shows that experience with the novel construction affects the processing of a construction already known to the participants and with which the novel construction is temporarily ambiguous. Experiment 4 demonstrates that the influence of a novel construction on the comprehension of familiar constructions is affected by the processing that occurred while the novel construction was learned. These results are discussed in the context of the constraint satisfaction approach to sentence processing and episodic-processing accounts of memory.