Elucidating the influences of embodiment and conceptual metaphor on lexical and non-speech tone learning

In the contexts of language learning and music processing, hand gestures conveying acoustic information visually influence perception of speech and non-speech sounds (Connell et al., 2013; Morett & Chang, 2015). Currently, it is unclear whether this effect is due to these gestures' use of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognition 2022-05, Vol.222, p.105014-105014, Article 105014
Main Authors: Morett, Laura M., Feiler, Jacob B., Getz, Laura M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Auditory perception
Concepts
Conceptual metaphor
Contours
Cross-modal
Embodied cognition
Embodiment
Frequency
Gesture
Gestures
Human body
Humans
Language
Learning
Lexical tone
Mapping
Metaphor
Motion
Motion detection
Multisensory integration
Music
Pitch
Pitch Perception
Sensorimotor integration
Sensory integration
Speech
Speech Perception
Visual stimuli
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Summary:In the contexts of language learning and music processing, hand gestures conveying acoustic information visually influence perception of speech and non-speech sounds (Connell et al., 2013; Morett & Chang, 2015). Currently, it is unclear whether this effect is due to these gestures' use of the human body to highlight relevant features of language (embodiment) or the cross-modal mapping between the visual motion trajectories of these gestures and corresponding auditory features (conceptual metaphor). To address this question, we examined identification of the pitch contours of lexical tones and non-speech analogs learned with pitch gesture, comparable dot motion, or no motion. Critically, pitch gesture and dot motion were either congruent or incongruent with the vertical conceptual metaphor of pitch. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that identification accuracy increased for tones learned with congruent pitch gesture and dot motion, whereas it remained stable or decreased for tones learned with incongruent pitch gesture and dot motion. These findings provide the first evidence that both embodied and non-embodied visual stimuli congruent with the vertical conceptual metaphor of pitch enhance lexical and non-speech tone learning. Thus, they illuminate the influences of conceptual metaphor and embodiment on lexical and non-speech auditory perception, providing insight into how they can be leveraged to enhance language learning and music processing.
ISSN:0010-0277
1873-7838
DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105014