Embodied cognition: The interplay between automatic resonance and selection-for-action mechanisms

Embodied cognition, or the notion that cognitive processes develop from goal-directed interactions between organisms and their environment has stressed the automaticity of perceptual and motor resonance mechanisms in other cognitive domains like language. The present paper starts with reviewing abundant empirical evidence for automatic resonance mechanisms between action and language and examples of other cognitive domains such as number processing. Special attention is given here to social implications of embodied cognition. Then some more recent evidence indicating the importance of the action context on the interaction between action and language is reviewed. Finally, a theoretical notion about how automatic and selective mechanisms can be incorporated in an embodied cognitive perspective is provided.

[1]  H. Bekkering,et al.  Semantic activation in action planning. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[2]  Friedemann Pulvermüller,et al.  Reading cinnamon activates olfactory brain regions , 2006, NeuroImage.

[3]  G. Clore,et al.  Do Approach-Avoidance Actions Create Attitudes? , 2006, Psychological science.

[4]  H. Aarts,et al.  Habits as knowledge structures: automaticity in goal-directed behavior. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[5]  Irene P. Kan,et al.  Selection from perceptual and conceptual representations , 2004, Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience.

[6]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Action for perception: a motor-visual attentional effect. , 1999, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[7]  Friedemann Pulvermüller,et al.  Brain Signatures of Meaning Access in Action Word Recognition , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[8]  H. Bekkering,et al.  Visual Search Is Modulated by Action Intentions , 2002, Psychological science.

[9]  Vittorio Gallese,et al.  Listening to Action-related Sentences Activates Fronto-parietal Motor Circuits , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[10]  O. Hauk,et al.  Neurophysiological distinction of action words in the fronto‐central cortex , 2004, Human brain mapping.

[11]  Vincent Walsh.  A theory of magnitude: common cortical metrics of time, space and quantity , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[12]  B. Hommel,et al.  Blindness to response-compatible stimuli. , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[13]  H. Bekkering,et al.  Selection-for-action in visual search. , 2005, Acta psychologica.

[14]  Michael P. Kaschak,et al.  Grounding language in action , 2002, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[15]  Harold Bekkering,et al.  Body schematics: On the role of the body schema in embodied lexical–semantic representations , 2010, Neuropsychologia.

[16]  F. Strack,et al.  Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: a nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[17]  J. Bargh,et al.  Automaticity in action: The unconscious as repository of chronic goals and motives. , 1996 .

[18]  David J. Ostry,et al.  Time course of number magnitude interference during grasping , 2008, Cortex.

[19]  Angela D. Friederici,et al.  Comprehending Prehending: Neural Correlates of Processing Verbs with Motor Stems , 2007, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[20]  Listening to action-related sentences impairs postural control. , 2011, Journal of electromyography and kinesiology : official journal of the International Society of Electrophysiological Kinesiology.

[21]  Thomas Mussweiler,et al.  Doing Is for Thinking! , 2006, Psychological science.

[22]  P. Dixon,et al.  Semantics affect the planning but not control of grasping , 2002, Experimental Brain Research.

[23]  R. Ilmoniemi,et al.  Functional links between motor and language systems , 2005, The European journal of neuroscience.

[24]  Melissa J. Ferguson,et al.  The goal construct in social psychology. , 2007 .

[25]  F. Strack,et al.  Movement direction or change in distance? Self- and object-related approach–avoidance motions ☆ , 2008 .

[26]  B. Hommel,et al.  Intentional control of attention: action planning primes action-related stimulus dimensions , 2007, Psychological research.

[27]  S. Tipper,et al.  Vision-for-action: The effects of object property discrimination and action state on affordance compatibility effects , 2006, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[28]  W. Prinz,et al.  Perceptual resonance: action-induced modulation of perception , 2007, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[29]  M. van Elk,et al.  Semantics in action: An electrophysiological study on the use of semantic knowledge for action , 2008, Journal of Physiology-Paris.

[30]  L. Barsalou.  Grounded cognition. , 2008, Annual review of psychology.

[31]  Rolf A. Zwaan,et al.  Seeing, acting, understanding: motor resonance in language comprehension. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[32]  Sarah H. Creem,et al.  Grasping objects by their handles: a necessary interaction between cognition and action. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[33]  B. Mesquita,et al.  Adjustment to Chronic Diseases and Terminal Illness Health Psychology : Psychological Adjustment to Chronic Disease , 2006 .

[34]  A. Allport,et al.  Selection for action: Some behavioral and neurophysiological considerations of attention and action , 1987 .

[35]  G. Aschersleben,et al.  The Theory of Event Coding (TEC): a framework for perception and action planning. , 2001, The Behavioral and brain sciences.

[36]  Michael Andres,et al.  Number magnitude and grip aperture interaction , 2004, Neuroreport.

[37]  J. Bargh,et al.  The automated will: nonconscious activation and pursuit of behavioral goals. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[38]  E. Miller,et al.  An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. , 2001, Annual review of neuroscience.

[39]  Rolf A. Zwaan,et al.  Embodied Language: A Review of the Role of the Motor System in Language Comprehension , 2008, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[40]  Harold Bekkering,et al.  Getting a grip on numbers: numerical magnitude priming in object grasping. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[41]  R. Ellis,et al.  The potentiation of grasp types during visual object categorization , 2001 .

[42]  W. Prinz,et al.  Seeing while moving: Measuring the online influence of action on perception , 2007, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[43]  J. Bargh,et al.  Automaticity of social behavior: direct effects of trait construct and stereotype-activation on action. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[44]  Harold Bekkering,et al.  Effects of intentional motor actions on embodied language processing. , 2010, Experimental psychology.

[45]  Pasquale A. Della Rosa,et al.  The impact of semantic reference on word class: An fMRI study of action and object naming , 2006, NeuroImage.