Stanfield R A, Zwaan R A
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1270, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2001 Mar;12(2):153-6. doi: 10.1111/1467-9280.00326.
Perceptual symbol systems assume an analogue relationship between a symbol and its referent, whereas amodal symbol systems assume an arbitrary relationship between a symbol and its referent. According to perceptual symbol theories, the complete representation of an object, called a simulation, should reflect physical characteristics of the object. Amodal theories, in contrast, do not make this prediction. We tested the hypothesis, derived from perceptual symbol theories, that people mentally represent the orientation of an object implied by a verbal description. Orientation (vertical-horizontal) was manipulated by having participants read a sentence that implicitly suggested a particular orientation for an object. Then recognition latencies to pictures of the object in each of the two orientations were measured. Pictures matching the orientation of the object implied by the sentence were responded to faster than pictures that did not match the orientation. This finding is interpreted as offering support for theories positing perceptual symbol systems.
知觉符号系统假定符号与其所指对象之间存在一种类似的关系，而非模态符号系统则假定符号与其所指对象之间存在一种任意的关系。根据知觉符号理论，一个对象的完整表征，称为模拟，应该反映该对象的物理特征。相比之下，非模态理论则不做此预测。我们检验了源自知觉符号理论的一个假设，即人们在心理上表征由言语描述所暗示的对象的方向。通过让参与者阅读一个隐含地暗示对象特定方向的句子来操纵方向（垂直-水平）。然后测量对处于两种方向中每种方向的对象图片的识别潜伏期。与句子所暗示的对象方向相匹配的图片的反应速度比不匹配方向的图片要快。这一发现被解释为支持假定知觉符号系统的理论。
