Sound-Action Symbolism

Recent evidence has shown linkages between actions and segmental elements of speech. For instance, close-front vowels are sound symbolically associated with the precision grip, and front vowels are associated with forward-directed limb movements. The current review article presents a variety of such sound-action effects and proposes that they compose a category of sound symbolism that is based on grounding a conceptual knowledge of a referent in articulatory and manual action representations. In addition, the article proposes that even some widely known sound symbolism phenomena such as the sound-magnitude symbolism can be partially based on similar sensorimotor grounding. It is also discussed that meaning of suprasegmental speech elements in many instances is similarly grounded in body actions. Sound symbolism, prosody, and body gestures might originate from the same embodied mechanisms that enable a vivid and iconic expression of a meaning of a referent to the recipient.Peer reviewe

Interaction between grasping and articulation : How vowel and consonant pronunciation influences precision and power grip responses

Grasping and mouth movements have been proposed to be integrated anatomically, functionally and evolutionarily. In line with this, we have shown that there is a systematic interaction between particular speech units and grip performance. For example, when the task requires pronouncing a speech unit simultaneously with grasp response, the speech units [i] and [t] are associated with relatively rapid and accurate precision grip responses, while [ɑ] and [k] are associated with power grip responses. This study is aimed at complementing the picture about which vowels and consonants are associated with these grasp types. The study validated our view that the high-front vowels and the alveolar consonants are associated with precision grip responses, while low and high-back vowels as well as velar consonants or those whose articulation involves the lowering of the tongue body are associated with power grip responses. This paper also proposes that one reason why small/large concepts are associated with specific speech sounds in the sound-magnitude symbolism is because articulation of these sounds is programmed within the overlapping mechanisms of precision or power grasping.Peer reviewe

AFFORDANCE, ATTENTION AND LATERALITY

This thesis examines object-guided actions. Recently, micro-affordance effects have shown that a visual object affords actions automatically. These effects are observed when the grasp type (precision and power grasp) is facilitated by size (small and large) of the categorized object (the object-size effect), or when right or left hand responses are facilitated by object orientation (the object-orientation effect). It has been shown elsewhere that attentional mechanisms have a vital role in visually guided movements. In addition, visually guided movements have associated with hemispheric lateralization. Thus, the central focus of the thesis was the role of different components of attention (location-based-, object-based-, endogenous-, exogenous-, focused attention) in micro-affordance effects, and the hemispheric lateralisation of these effects. Using the stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) paradigm, a set of nine experiments (six that employed the object-orientation effect and three that employed the object-size effect) investigated aspects of attention and lateralization in visuomotor integration. A participant performed bi-manual keypresses or precision/power grip responses according to the identity of a target that was displayed over the task-irrelevant prime. Size or orientation properties of the prime object were manipulated, and outcome of interest was how those object properties effected corresponding or non-corresponding responses. The data showed that both micro-affordance effects could be observed when the allocation of endogenous attention to the prime is minimal or absent. However, the generation of both effects were observed to need resources of focused attention. In addition, the data supported the view that the object-orientation effect is generated by the orientation of the entire object and not by a shift of attention to the object’s handle location. Finally, manual asymmetries in these effects suggested that visually guided precision grips are computed predominantly in the left hemisphere whereas power grips are computed in the right hemisphere

Magnitude sound symbolism influences vowel production

Segmental properties of speech can convey sound symbolic meaning. This study presents two novel sound meaning mappings using a choice reaction time paradigm in which participants have to select quickly one of the two vocal response alternatives based on predefined categories of perceptual magnitude. The first study showed that the short distance between perceived objects facilitates the initiation of the vowel [i] production, while long distance facilitates the production of [u] and [?]. Correspondingly, in the second study, vocal responses produced with [i] and [e] were initiated faster when the stimuli required short vocalizations, while responses produced with [u], [?] and [y] were faster when the stimuli required long vocalizations. Hence, similar sound-meaning mappings were observed concerning concepts of spatial and temporal length. This suggests that different sound-magnitude effects can be generalized to the common processing of conceptual magnitude. A conceptual magnitude seems to be implicitly and systematically associated with an articulatory response of a specific vowel. The study also suggests that in addition to the vowel openness and backness, the vowel roundness can also associate particular vowels with large magnitudes.Peer reviewe

Connection between movements of mouth and hand : Perspectives on development and evolution of speech

Mounting evidence shows interaction between manipulative hand movements and movements of tongue, lips and mouth in a vocal and non-vocal context. The current article reviews this evidence and discusses its contribution to perspectives of development and evolution of speech. In particular, the article aims to present novel insight on how processes controlling the two primary grasp components of manipulative hand movements, the precision and power grip, might be systematically connected to motor processes involved in producing certain articulatory gestures. This view assumes that due to these motor overlaps between grasping and articulation, development of these grip types in infancy can facilitate development of specific articulatory gestures. In addition, the hand-mouth connections might have even boosted the evolution of some articulatory gestures. This account also proposes that some semantic sound-symbolic pairings between a speech sound and a referent concept might be partially based on these hand-mouth interactions.Peer reviewe

Automatic inhibition of habitual response associated with a non-target object while performing goal-directed actions

This study is devoted to investigating mechanisms that inhibit habituated response associated with affordance of a non-target while executing action directed to a target. In four experiments, a paradigm was used that required a rapid left- or right-hand response according to the direction of the target arrow presented simultaneously or in close temporal proximity to a non-target whose handle position afforded grasping with the left or right hand. In general, responding was decelerated and more erroneous when the handle position was compatible with the responding hand. This effect of response inhibition was removed when the delay between the non-target offset and target onset was longer than 200 ms, and reversed into response facilitation when the target onset was delayed for 400–600 ms. The study suggests that processes that control withholding habitual response associated with affordance of a non-target utilise response inhibition mechanisms overlapping with those involved in behavioural control of the stop-signal task. This response inhibition is triggered automatically and directly by affordance of a non-target without preceding response excitation associated with this affordance cue.Peer reviewe

Action inhibition and affordances associated with a non-target object : An integrative review

This article reviews evidence for the special inhibitory mechanisms required to keep response activation related to affordances of a non-target object from evoking responses. This evidence presents that response activation triggered by affordances of a non-target are automatically inhibited resulting, for example, in decelerated response speed when the response is compatible with the affordance. The article also highlights the neural processes that differentiate these non-target-related affordance effects from other non-target-related effects such as the Eriksen flanker effect that-contrary to these affordance effects-present decelerated response speed when there is incompatibility between the non-target and the response. The article discusses the role of frontal executive mechanisms in controlling action planning processes in these non-target-related affordance effects. It is also proposed that overlapping inhibition mechanisms prevent executing impulsive actions relative to affordances of a target and exaggerate inhibition of response activation triggered by affordances of a non-target.Peer reviewe

Inter-limb coupling of proximal and distal hand actions

Past studies have revealed connections in directional programming between hands. The present study investigated whether there could also be interaction in programming proximal and distal components of a prehensile hand action. In Experiment 1, the participants performed simultaneously either a push or pull response with the left hand and the grip closure or opening with the right hand. In Experiment 2, the push and pull responses of the left hand were performed together with the precision or power grip responses of the right hand. The participants showed preference, measured in reaction times, to couple the push response with the grip opening and the precision grip, whereas the pull response was associated with the grip closure and the power grip. The study shows for the first time a systematic interaction in proximal and distal prehensile components between two hands. We propose that these effects reflect inter- and intra-limb connections between the representations that prepare the arm extension for the outward reaching, the finger extension for the grip opening, and the motor processes that prepare the precision grip. Conversely, there appear to be connections between the representations that prepare the arm flexion for the inward directed hand movements, the flexion of the thumb and the fingers for the grip closure, and flexion of four fingers for the power grip.Peer reviewe

Connecting directional limb movements to vowel fronting and backing

It has been shown recently that when participants are required to pronounce a vowel at the same time with the hand movement, the vocal and manual responses are facilitated when a front vowel is produced with forward-directed hand movements and a back vowel is produced with backward-directed hand movements. This finding suggests a coupling between spatial programing of articulatory tongue movements and hand movements. The present study revealed that the same effect can be also observed in relation to directional leg movements. The study suggests that the effect operates within the common directional processes of movement planning including at least tongue, hand and leg movements, and these processes might contribute sound-to-meaning mappings to the semantic concepts of 'forward' and 'backward'.Peer reviewe

Interaction in planning vocalizations and grasping

Peer reviewe