1 research outputs found
Congruency effect between articulation and grasping in native English speakers
Previous studies have shown congruency effects between
specific speech articulations and manual grasping actions. For
example, uttering the syllable [kɑ] facilitates power grip
responses in terms of reaction time and response accuracy. A
similar association of the syllable [ti] with precision grip has
also been observed. As these congruency effects have been to
date shown only for Finnish native speakers, this study explored
whether the congruency effects generalize to native speakers of
another language. The original experiments were therefore
replicated with English participants (N=16). Several previous
findings were reproduced, namely the association of syllables
[kɑ] and [ke] with power grip and of [ti] and [te] with precision
grip. However, the association of vowels [É‘] and [i] with power
and precision grip, respectively, previously found for Finnish
participants, was not significant for English speakers. This
difference could be related to ambiguities of English
orthography and pronunciation variations. It is possible that for
English speakers seeing a certain written vowel activates
several different phonological representations associated with
that letter. If the congruency effects are based on interactions
between specific phonological representations and grasp
actions, this ambiguity might lead to weakening of the effects
in the manner demonstrated here