Department of Psychology/Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Psychology Building, Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
Cogn Sci. 2011 Mar;35(2):381-98. doi: 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01157.x. Epub 2010 Dec 9.
Previous studies have shown that object properties are processed faster when they follow properties from the same perceptual modality than properties from different modalities. These findings suggest that language activates sensorimotor processes, which, according to those studies, can only be explained by a modal account of cognition. The current paper shows how a statistical linguistic approach of word co-occurrences can also reliably predict the category of perceptual modality a word belongs to (auditory, olfactory-gustatory, visual-haptic), even though the statistical linguistic approach is less precise than the modal approach (auditory, gustatory, haptic, olfactory, visual). Moreover, the statistical linguistic approach is compared with the modal embodied approach in an experiment in which participants verify properties that share or shift modalities. Response times suggest that fast responses can best be explained by the linguistic account, whereas slower responses can best be explained by the embodied account. These results provide further evidence for the theory that conceptual processing is both linguistic and embodied, whereby less precise linguistic processes precede precise simulation processes.
先前的研究表明，当物体属性与来自同一感知模态的属性相同时，其处理速度比与不同模态的属性相同时更快。这些发现表明，语言激活了感觉运动过程，根据这些研究，这些过程只能用认知的模态解释来解释。本文展示了一种基于词汇共现的统计语言方法如何也能可靠地预测一个词所属的感知模态类别（听觉、嗅觉-味觉、视觉-触觉），即使统计语言方法不如模态方法精确（听觉、味觉、触觉、嗅觉、视觉）。此外，在一项实验中，统计语言方法与模态具身方法进行了比较，在该实验中，参与者验证了共享或转移模态的属性。反应时间表明，语言解释可以最好地解释快速反应，而较慢的反应可以最好地解释为具身解释。这些结果为以下理论提供了进一步的证据，即概念处理既是语言的又是具身的，其中不那么精确的语言过程先于精确的模拟过程。
