Recent studies in neuroimagery and cognitive psychology support the view of sensory-motor based knowledge: when processing an object concept, neural systems would re-enact previous experiences with this object. In this experiment, a conceptual switching cost paradigm derived from Pecher, Zeelenberg, and Barsalou (2003, 2004) was used to investigate sensory-motor simulation in children’s conceptual processing. Adults and 7-year-old children performed a property verification task involving visual and motor properties of manipulable artifacts. Verification times were compared for target trials preceded by a trial in which the property either involved the same modality or a different one. By 7 years of age, results revealed a modality switching cost with longer verification times in the different modality than in the same modality condition. In addition, the switching effect did not interact with age or property modality type. Results support an embodied view of concepts in both adults and children.
Barsalou, L.W., Pecher, D., Zeelenberg, R., Simmons, W.K., & Hamann, S.B. ( 2005). Multimodal simulation in conceptual processing. In W.K. Ahn, R.L. Goldstone, B.C. Love, A.B. Markman, & P. Wolff (Eds.), Categorization inside and outside the lab: Festschrift in honor of Douglas L. Medin (pp. 249-270). Washington , CD: American Psychological Association.
3.
Bonthoux, F., & Kalenine, S. ( 2007). Preschoolers’ superordinate taxonomic categorization as a function of individual processing of visual vs. contextual/functional information and object domain. Cognition Brain Behavior, 11(Special Issue on the Development of Categorization ), 713-731.
4.
Borghi, A.M., & Caramelli, N. ( 2003). Situation bounded conceptual organization in children: From action to spatial relations. Cognitive Development, 18, 49-60.
5.
Cook, S.W., Mitchell, Z., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2008). Gesturing makes learning last. Cognition, 106, 1047-1058.
6.
Hashimoto, N., McGregor, K.K., & Graham, A. ( 2007). Conceptual organization at 6 and 8 years of age: Evidence from the semantic priming of object decisions. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Resarch, 50, 161-176.
Kalenine, S., Bonthoux, F., & Borghi, A.M. ( 2009). How action and context priming influence categorization: A developmental study. British Journal of Developmental Psychology , 27, 717-730.
9.
Kalenine, S., Peyrin, C., Pichat, C., Segebarth, C., Bonthoux, F., & Baciu, M. ( 2009). The sensory-motor specificity of taxonomic and thematic conceptual relations: A behavioral and fMRI study. Neuroimage , 44, 1152-1162.
10.
Labeye, E., Oker, A., Badard, G., & Versace, R. ( 2008). Activation and integration of motor components in a short-term priming paradigm. Acta Psychologica, 129, 108-111.
11.
Lautrey, J. ( 2003). A pluralistic approach to cognitive differentiation and development. In T. Lubart (Ed.), Models of intelligence: International perspectives (pp. 117-131). Washington, DC: APA Press.
12.
Lin, E.L., & Murphy, G.L. ( 2001). Thematic relations in adults’ concepts. Journal of Experimental Psychology General, 130(1), 3-28.
13.
Lucariello, J., Kyratzis, A., & Nelson, K. ( 1992). Taxonomic knowledge: What kind and when? Child Development, 63, 978-998.
14.
Mandler, J.M. ( 2000). Perceptual and conceptual processes in infancy. Journal of Cognition and Development, 1, 3-36.
15.
Marques, J.F. ( 2006). Specialization and semantic organization: Evidence for multiple semantics linked to sensory modalities. Memory & Cognition, 34, 60-67.
16.
Marques, J.F., Canessa, N., Sirib, S., Catricala, E., & Cappa, S.F. ( 2008). Conceptual knowledge in the brain: fMRI evidence for a featural organization. Brain Research, 1194, 90-99.
17.
Martin, A. ( 2007). The representation of object concepts in the brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 25-45.
18.
Mounoud, P., Duscherer, K., Moy, G., & Perraudin, S. ( 2007). The influence of action perception on object recognition: A developmental study. Developmental Science, 10, 836-852.
19.
Myung, J., Blumstein, S.E., & Sedivy, J.C. ( 2006). Playing on the typewriter, typing on the piano: Manipulation knowledge of objects. Cognition, 98, 223-243.
20.
Nelson, K. ( 1983). The derivation of concepts and categories from event representations. In E.K. Scholnick (Ed.), New trends in conceptual representation: Challenges to Piaget’s theory? (pp. 129-149). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
21.
Noppeney, U. ( 2008). The neural systems of tool and action semantics: A perspective from functional imaging. Journal of Physiology-Paris, 102, 40-49.
22.
Ozcaliskan, S., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2005). Gesture is at the cutting edge of early language development. Cognition, 96, B101-B113.
23.
Pecher, D., Zeelenberg, R., & Barsalou, L.W. (2003). Verifying different-modality properties for concepts produces switching costs. Psychological Science, 14, 119-124.
24.
Pecher, D., Zeelenberg, R., & Barsalou, L.W. (2004). Sensorimotor simulations underlie conceptual representations: Modality-specific effects of prior activation . Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 164-167.
25.
Quinn, P.C. ( 2000). Perceptually based approaches to understanding early categorization. Infancy, 1, 29-30.
26.
Rumelhart, D.E., & Norman, D.A. ( 1988). Representation in memory. In R.C. Atkinson , R.J. Herrnstein, G. Lindzey, & R.D. Luce (Eds.), Stevens’ handbook of experimental psychology, Vol 2: Learning and cognition (pp. 511-587). New York, NY : Wiley.
27.
Siegler, R.S., & Shipley, C. ( 1995). Variation, selection, and cognitive change. In T. Simon & G. Halford (Eds.), Developing cognitive competence: New approaches to process modeling (pp. 31-76). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
28.
Simmons, W.K., Hamann, S.B., Harenski, C.L., Hu, X.P., & Barsalou, L.W. (2008). fMRI evidence for word association and situated simulation in conceptual processing. Journal of Physiology-Paris, 102, 106-119.
29.
Sloutsky, V.M. ( 2003). The role of similarity in the development of categorization . Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 246-251.
30.
Sloutsky, V.M., Lo, Y.F., & Fisher, A.V. ( 2001). How much does a shared name make things similar? Linguistic labels, similarity, and the development of inductive inference. Child Development, 72, 1695-1709.
31.
Smith, E.E., & Medin, D.L. ( 1981). Categories and concepts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Spivey, M.J., Richardson, D.C., & Dale, R. ( 2009). Movements of eye and hand in language and cognition. In E. Morsella & J.A. Bargh (Eds.), The psychology of action (Vol. 2). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
36.
Stevanoni, E., & Salmon, K. ( 2005). Giving memory a hand: Instructing children to gesture enhances their event recall. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior , 29, 217-233.
37.
Tucker, M., & Ellis, R. ( 2004). Action priming by briefly presented objects. Acta Psychologica, 116, 185-203.
38.
Vermeulen, N., Niedenthal, P.M., & Luminet, O. ( 2007). Switching between sensory and affective systems incurs processing costs. Cognitive Science, 31, 183-192.
39.
Versace, R., Labeye, E., Badard, G., & Rose, M. ( 2008). The contents of long-term memory and the emergence of knowledge. The European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21, 522-560.
40.
Zwaan, R., Stanfield, R.A., & Yaxley, R.H. ( 2002). Language comprehenders mentally represent the shapes of objects. Psychological Science, 13, 168-171.
