Ledneva T, Shtyrov Y, Shevtsov O, Myachykov A
Cognitive Health and Intelligence Centre (CHIC), Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, 20 Myasnitskaya Str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.
Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, 3 Universitetsbyen, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark.
Mem Cognit. 2025 Sep 2. doi: 10.3758/s13421-025-01783-0.
Whereas the influence of visual information on the activation of perceived affordances is well documented, far less attention has been given to the specific role of language in modulating affordance activation. Furthermore, while several studies have demonstrated that nouns and verbs denoting grasping actions and graspable objects may potentiate affordances, there is little-to-no research exploring similar properties of other word classes, particularly those specifically marking spatial relations - the so-called demonstrative pronouns. Demonstratives (e.g., this, that) denote the object's position in space relative to the interlocutors (proximal or distal), therefore indicating its availability for action, which, in turn, predicts their potential involvement in modulating action affordances. To test this hypothesis, we used a stimulus-response compatibility paradigm with auditory stimuli to examine the impact of verbs and demonstratives on affordance activation. Participants were in a semantic judgement task presented with linguistic primes comprising a verb (action/observation) and a demonstrative (proximal/distal), followed by a target word denoting a manipulable object. First, our data confirmed the potential of action verbs to activate manual affordances, evident as expedited response times for object-verb congruent trials. Second, and most important, our data showed that proximal demonstratives had a similar capacity, particularly when paired with an action verb. These findings have significant implications for theories of language comprehension, supporting the view that language processing is deeply intertwined with sensorimotor systems and that demonstratives are integral components of spatial cognition, modulating the perceived affordances of objects.
虽然视觉信息对感知到的可供性激活的影响已有充分记录，但语言在调节可供性激活方面的具体作用却很少受到关注。此外，虽然几项研究表明，表示抓握动作和可抓握物体的名词和动词可能会增强可供性，但几乎没有研究探索其他词类的类似特性，特别是那些专门标记空间关系的词类——所谓的指示代词。指示词（如this、that）表示物体相对于对话者在空间中的位置（近端或远端），因此表明其可用于行动，这反过来又预测了它们在调节行动可供性方面的潜在作用。为了验证这一假设，我们使用了一种带有听觉刺激的刺激-反应兼容性范式，来检验动词和指示词对可供性激活的影响。参与者进行一项语义判断任务，任务中呈现的语言启动刺激包括一个动词（动作/观察）和一个指示词（近端/远端），随后是一个表示可操作物体的目标词。首先，我们的数据证实了动作动词激活手动可供性的潜力，这在物体-动词一致试验的更快反应时间中得到体现。其次，也是最重要的，我们的数据表明近端指示词具有类似的能力，特别是与动作动词配对时。这些发现对语言理解理论具有重要意义，支持了语言处理与感觉运动系统深度交织的观点，以及指示词是空间认知的重要组成部分、调节物体感知可供性的观点。
