An Abundance of Riches: Cross-Task Comparisons of Semantic Richness Effects in Visual Word Recognition

There is considerable evidence (e.g., Pexman et al., 2008) that semantically rich words, which are associated with relatively more semantic information, are recognized faster across different lexical processing tasks. The present study extends this earlier work by providing the most comprehensive evaluation to date of semantic richness effects on visual word recognition performance. Specifically, using mixed effects analyses to control for the influence of correlated lexical variables, we considered the impact of number of features, number of senses, semantic neighborhood density, imageability, and body–object interaction across five visual word recognition tasks: standard lexical decision, go/no-go lexical decision, speeded pronunciation, progressive demasking, and semantic classification. Semantic richness effects could be reliably detected in all tasks of lexical processing, indicating that semantic representations, particularly their imaginal and featural aspects, play a fundamental role in visual word recognition. However, there was also evidence that the strength of certain richness effects could be flexibly and adaptively modulated by task demands, consistent with an intriguing interplay between task-specific mechanisms and differentiated semantic processing

Examining the Influence of Sensorimotor Experience on 5-year-old Children's Word Learning

According to strong theories of embodied cognition, sensorimotor experience is essential for gaining, representing, and accessing conceptual knowledge. The role of embodied knowledge in adult language processing has been studied quite extensively, and embodied experiences are considered necessary for infants’ early learning. The effect of sensorimotor experience in older children’s language learning, however, has been examined to a much lesser extent. I conducted two experiments with 5-year-old children to examine the influence of sensorimotor interaction on object label learning. In Experiment 1, children learned labels for ten novel objects in one of four learning conditions: active interaction, observe interaction, object observation, or object observation with fact. The children were then given a recognition test, and the results indicated that there was no effect of learning condition on recognition accuracy. Children in the active interaction condition did make more comments during the learning phase about how the objects could be manipulated, and this focus on object function could have distracted from their ability to learn the object labels. In Experiment 2, I modified the stimuli so that they did not afford any obvious functions and so that the sensory features of the objects were emphasized. Children again learned labels for ten novel objects in one of two learning conditions: active interaction or object observation. Once again, there was no effect of learning condition on recognition accuracy performance. Taken together, the findings provide some insight into the role of embodied experience in children’s language learning. More specifically, the results provide evidence against strong theories of embodied cognition by demonstrating a situation in which sensorimotor experience did not benefit learning

Learning Labels for Objects: Does Degree of Sensorimotor Experience Matter?

Theories of embodied cognition propose that sensorimotor experience is essential to learning, representing, and accessing conceptual information. Embodied effects have been observed in early child development and adult cognitive processing, but there has been less research examining the role of embodiment in later childhood. We conducted two experiments to test whether degree of sensorimotor experience modulates children’s word learning. In Experiment 1, 5-year-old children learned labels for 10 unfamiliar objects in one of six learning conditions, which varied in how much sensorimotor experience and information about the objects children received. Children’s word learning was assessed with a recognition test. Results indicated that there was no effect of learning condition on recognition accuracy, as children performed equally well in all conditions. In Experiment 2, we modified the stimuli to emphasize the sensory features of the objects; 5-year-old children learned labels for these objects in one of two learning conditions. Once again, there was no effect of learning condition on children’s recognition accuracy performance. Overall, children’s word learning was not modulated by the extent to which they had sensorimotor experience with the labelled objects. As such, the results place some limits on the role of embodiment in language learning