Bottini Roberto, Bucur Madalina, Crepaldi Davide
Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento.
Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2016 Sep;145(9):1160-76. doi: 10.1037/xge0000197. Epub 2016 Jun 30.
Theories of embodied semantics (ES) suggest that a critical part of understanding what a word means consists of simulating the sensorimotor experience related to the word's referent. Some proponents of ES have suggested that sensorimotor activations are mandatory and highly automatic during semantic processing. Evidence supporting this claim comes from masked priming studies showing that unconsciously perceived spatial words (e.g., up, down) can directly modulate action performance on the basis of their meaning. However, a closer look reveals that such priming effects can be explained also in terms of symbolic (disembodied) semantic priming or nonsemantic mechanisms. In this study we sought to understand whether sensorimotor processing takes place during language understanding outside awareness. We used spatial words as a test bed and across 6 experiments we teased apart the possibility that action priming could be explained by: (a) nonsemantic mechanisms, (b) symbolic semantic priming, or (c) embodied semantic priming. The critical finding is that when symbolic and nonsemantic mechanisms were prevented, allowing only for a genuinely embodied semantic priming, no effect was found. Conversely, facilitation emerged in the same experimental paradigm when embodied priming was prevented and symbolic priming was allowed. Despite extensive testing, we found no evidence that unconsciously perceived words can activate sensorimotor processes, although these words are processed up to the semantic level. We thus conclude that sensorimotor activations might need conscious access to emerge during language understanding. (PsycINFO Database Record
具身语义学（ES）理论表明，理解一个词的含义的关键部分包括模拟与该词所指对象相关的感觉运动体验。一些ES的支持者认为，在语义处理过程中，感觉运动激活是强制性的且高度自动化的。支持这一说法的证据来自掩蔽启动研究，该研究表明，无意识感知到的空间词（如向上、向下）可以根据其含义直接调节动作表现。然而，仔细观察会发现，这种启动效应也可以用符号（非具身）语义启动或非语义机制来解释。在本研究中，我们试图了解在意识之外的语言理解过程中是否会发生感觉运动处理。我们以空间词作为测试平台，通过6个实验，我们梳理了动作启动可以由以下原因解释的可能性：（a）非语义机制，（b）符号语义启动，或（c）具身语义启动。关键的发现是，当符号和非语义机制被排除，只允许真正的具身语义启动时，没有发现效应。相反，当具身启动被排除而允许符号启动时，在相同的实验范式中出现了促进作用。尽管进行了广泛的测试，但我们没有发现证据表明无意识感知到的词可以激活感觉运动过程，尽管这些词被处理到了语义层面。因此，我们得出结论，在语言理解过程中，感觉运动激活可能需要有意识的参与才能出现。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
