Words That Move Us. The Effects of Sentences on Body Sway.
John F Stins, Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos, Femke Hulzinga, Eric Wenker, Rouwen Cañal-Bruland
Advances in Cognitive Psychology June 30, 2017 DOI: 10.5709/acp-0215-9 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Dutch participants standing upright on a force plate while reading sentences |
| Keywords | Motor control Postural sway Language processing Embodied cognition |
| Key findings | Reading sentences describing high physical effort produced greater postural sway (higher standard deviation) than reading low physical effort sentences, but only in medio-lateral sway, not anterio-posterior sway. The authors argue this indicates that sentence comprehension involves subtle motor activity mirroring the described activities, and that semantic processing reaches the motor periphery. |
Abstract
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 SD) 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.