Words That Move Us. The Effects of Sentences on Body Sway

According to the embodied cognition perspective, cognitive systems and perceptuo-motor systems are deeply intertwined and exert a causal effect on each other. A prediction following from this idea is that cognitive activity can result in subtle changes in observable movement. In one experiment, we t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in cognitive psychology 2017, Vol.13 (2), p.156-165
Main Authors: Stins, John F, Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando, Hulzinga, Femke, Wenker, Eric, Cañal-Bruland, Rouwen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Embodied cognition
language processing
motor control
Nonverbal communication
Oral reading
Physiological aspects
postural sway
Posture
Psychological aspects
Psychology
psykologi
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:According to the embodied cognition perspective, cognitive systems and perceptuo-motor systems are deeply intertwined and exert a causal effect on each other. A prediction following from this idea is that cognitive activity can result in subtle changes in observable movement. In one experiment, we tested whether reading various sentences resulted in changes in postural sway. Sentences symbolized various human activities involving high, low, or no physical effort. Dutch participants stood upright on a force plate, measuring the body center of pressure, while reading a succession of sentences. High physical effort sentences resulted in more postural sway (greater ) than low physical effort sentences. This effect only showed up in medio-lateral sway but not anterio-posterior sway. This suggests that sentence comprehension was accompanied by subtle motoric activity, likely mirroring the various activities symbolized in the sentences. We conclude that semantic processing reaches the motor periphery, leading to increased postural activity.
ISSN:1895-1171
1895-1171
DOI:10.5709/acp-0215-9