Manipulable objects can potentiate pointing and unusual grasping besides habitual grasping behaviors.

People are faster to perform a precision grip when they see a cherry (i.e., a small graspable object) than to perform a power grip, and the reverse holds true when they see an apple (i.e., a large graspable object). This potentiation effect supports that object representations could include motor components that would be simulated when a graspable object is seen. However, the nature of these motor components remains unclear. The embodied account posits that seeing an object only potentiates the most frequent actions associated with it (i.e., usual actions). In contrast, the size-coding account posits that seeing an object potentiates any actions associated to spatial codes compatible with those associated to the objects. We conducted three experiments to disentangle these two alternative accounts. We especially varied the nature of the responses while participants saw either large or small graspable objects. Our results showed a potentiation effect when participants performed the usual grasping actions (Experiment 1: power and precision grip) but also when they performed unusual grasping actions (Experiment 2: grasping between the thumb and little finger) and even when they had to perform non-grasping actions (Experiment 3: pointing actions). By supporting the size-coding account, our contribution underlines the need for a better understanding of the nature of the motor components of object representations and for using a proper control condition (i.e., pointing action) before arguing that the embodied account convincingly explains the potentiation effect of grasping behaviors.

When the Action to Be Performed at the Stage of Retrieval Enacts Memory of Action Verbs.

According to the embodied approach of language, concepts are grounded in sensorimotor mental states, and when we process language, the brain simulates some of the perceptions and actions that are involved when interacting with real objects. Moreover, several studies have highlighted that cognitive performances are dependent on the overlap between the motor action simulated and the motor action required by the task. On the other hand, in the field of memory, the role of action is under debate. The aim of this work was to show that performing an action at the stage of retrieval influences memory performance in a recognition task (experiment 1) and a cued recall task (experiment 2), even if the participants were never instructed to consider the implied action. The results highlighted an action-based memory effect at the retrieval stage. These findings contribute to the debate about the implication of motor system in action verb processing and its role for memory.

Size coding of alternative responses is sufficient to induce a potentiation effect with manipulable objects.

The mere perception of manipulable objects usually grasped with a power-grip (e.g., an apple) or a precision-grip (e.g., a cherry) potentiate power-grip- and precision-grip-responses, respectively. This effect is seen as to be driven by automatic access of the representation of manipulable objects that includes a motor representation of usually performed grasping behaviors (i.e., the embodied view). Nevertheless, a competing account argues that this effect could be due to an overlapping of size codes used to represent both manipulable objects and response options. Indeed, objects usually grasped with a power- and a precision-grip (e.g., an apple vs. a cherry) could be coded as large- and small-objects, respectively; and power- and precision-grip responses as large- and small-responses, respectively. We conducted 4 experiments to test this hypothesis. In Experiment 1, the response device usually used in studies reporting a potentiation effect is fixed horizontally (the grasping component of responses was removed). We instructed participants to press the small-switch with their index-digit and the large-switch with their palm-hand. In line with the size-coding-hypothesis, responses on the small-switch performed with the index-digit led to shorter RTs when objects usually associated with a precision-grip (e.g., a cherry) were presented compared to objects usually associated with a power-grip (e.g., an apple). A reverse pattern was obtained for responses on the large-switch performed with the palm-hand. In Experiments 2, 3 and 4, we went further by investigating which factors of Experiment 1 allow the size coding of responses: the size of switch and/or the size of the effector part used. Data confirmed the critical involvement of the size of switches and the possible involvement of the size of the effector part used. Thus, data support the possibility that the potentiation of grasping is due to a compatibility/incompatibility between size codes rather than involving motor representations of usually performed grasping behaviors as advocated in several embodied views. Moreover, data support the possibility that responses are coded thanks to a size code that extends the Theory of Event Coding.

How movement direction shapes the spatial representation of its effects: About the consequence of the ideomotor bidirectional association.

Ideomotor theories assume that action and perception share a common representational system in which a movement and its effect are equally represented and integrated by a bidirectional association. However, there is no mention of how this association leads to influence the representational content of each part. In this article, we investigated the influence of movement properties on the spatial representation of auditory effects. In line with the Action Constrains Theory of space perception, we suggest that changes in the movement direction leads to correlative changes in the spatial representation of the effect. In a pre-experiment, we replicated traditional ideomotor results with a response-effect (R-E) compatibility procedure. In two experiments, we used one condition of this procedure (i.e., the corresponding R-E mapping) to manipulate the movement properties associated to a non-spatialised effect. In the first experiment, the effect was associated with horizontal outward movements or with forward-backward movements. In the second experiment, we tested some alternative explanations for the results obtained in the first experiment. Globally, we showed that rightward movements led to localised auditory effect more on the right space than leftward movements and that backward movements led to localisation of the effect closer from the subjects than forward movements. In accordance with the Action Constrains Theory of space perception, these data suggest that movement shapes the spatial organisation of the effect representation.

From anticipation to integration: the role of integrated action-effects in building sensorimotor contingencies.

Ideomotor approaches to action control have provided evidence that the activation of an anticipatory image of previously learned action-effects plays a decisive role in action selection. This study sought for converging evidence by combining three previous experimental paradigms: the response-effect compatibility protocol introduced by Kunde (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(2), 387-394, 2001), the acquisition-test paradigm developed by Elsner and Hommel (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(1), 229, 2001), and the object-action compatibility manipulation of Tucker and Ellis (Visual Cognition, 8(6), 769-800, 2001). Three groups of participants first performed a response-effect compatibility task, in which they carried out power and precision grasps that produced either grasp-compatible or grasp-incompatible pictures, or no action effects. Performance was better in the compatible than in the incompatible group, which replicates previous observations and extends them to relationships between grasps and objects. Then, participants were to categorize object pictures by carrying out grasp responses. Apart from replicating previous findings of better performance in trials in which object size and grasp type was compatible, we found that this stimulus-response compatibility effect depended on previous response-effect learning. Taken together, these findings support the assumption that the experience of action-effect contingencies establishes durable event files that integrate representations of actions and their effects.

Effect of an unrelated fluent action on word recognition: A case of motor discrepancy.

It is now well established that motor fluency affects cognitive processes, including memory. In two experiments participants learned a list of words and then performed a recognition task. The original feature of our procedure is that before judging the words they had to perform a fluent gesture (i.e., typing a letter dyad). The dyads comprised letters located on either the right or left side of the keyboard. Participants typed dyads with their right or left index finger; the required movement was either very small (dyad composed of adjacent letters, Experiment 1) or slightly larger (dyad composed of letters separated by one key, experiment 2). The results show that when the gesture was performed in the ipsilateral space the probability of recognizing a word increased (to a lesser extent it is the same with the dominant hand, experiment 2). Moreover, a binary regression logistic highlighted that the probability of recognizing a word was proportional to the speed by which the gesture was performed. These results are discussed in terms of a feeling of familiarity emerging from motor discrepancy.

Valence activates motor fluency simulation and biases perceptual judgment.

The concept of motor fluency, defined as the positive marking associated with the easy realisation of a movement, is used to explain the various compatibility effects observed between emotional valence and lateral space. In this work, we propose that these effects arise from the motor fluency simulation induced by emotionally positive stimuli. In a perceptual line bisection task (Landmark task) we primed each trial with an emotionally positive word, negative word, neutral word or no word before asking participants to verbally indicate the side of the vertical mark on the horizontal line (Experiment 1) or to indicate the longest side of the line (Experiment 2). After positive words and for bisected lines, participants' responses were biased towards their dominant side for both right- and left-handers and similarly under the two different instructions. As movements of the dominant hand or in the dominant hemispace have been described as the most fluent lateral actions, this result supports our hypothesis that positive stimuli induce a mental simulation of fluent lateral movements. Furthermore, the replication of the effect under opposite instructions between the two experiments is in line with an explanation in terms of a bias in response selection rather than variations in perceptual content.

Word-to-picture recognition is a function of motor components mappings at the stage of retrieval.

Embodied approaches of cognition argue that retrieval involves the re-enactment of both sensory and motor components of the desired remembering. In this study, we investigated the effect of motor action performed to produce the response in a recognition task when this action is compatible with the affordance of the objects that have to be recognised. In our experiment, participants were first asked to learn a list of words referring to graspable objects, and then told to make recognition judgements on pictures. The pictures represented objects where the graspable part was either pointing to the same or to the opposite side of the "Yes" response key. Results show a robust effect of compatibility between objects affordance and response hand. Moreover, this compatibility improves participants' ability of discrimination, suggesting that motor components are relevant cue for memory judgement at the stage of retrieval in a recognition task. More broadly, our data highlight that memory judgements are a function of motor components mappings at the stage of retrieval.

A continuous mapping between space and valence with left- and right-handers.

In this research, we examined whether emotional valence could correspond to a continuous lateral bias in space, according to a mental metaphor that establishes the mapping between a concrete domain (space) and an abstract one (valence). Because acting with one's dominant hand is associated with fluency and positive valence (the bodily specificity hypothesis, or BSH), we asked strong right- and left-handers to perform two spatial location tasks using emotional faces with seven levels of valence. We hypothesized and showed through two studies that, according to the BSH, extreme valenced stimuli (as compared to moderate and weak ones) would be located more at the extremity of a horizontal line, according to the correspondences between handedness and the different valences of the stimuli. This research establishes that spatial and continuous mapping of emotions was obtained while controlling for motivational direction.

When "good" is not always right: effect of the consequences of motor action on valence-space associations.

Since the work of Casasanto (2009), it is now well established that valence and laterality are associated. Participants tend to prefer objects presented on their dominant side over items presented on their non-dominant side, and to place good items on their dominant side and bad items on the other side. Several studies highlight that those associations of valence and laterality are accounted for by the greater motor fluency of the dominant hand and various studies noted that these associations could be reversed depending on the way people interact with their environment. Consistently with the Theory of Event Coding, the aim of this work is to show that the consequences of motor actions could also reverse the associations between valence and laterality. Thus, if participants had to place two animals (one good, one bad) on two supports, one stable (no risk of falling), one unstable (risk of falling), we hypothesized that the good item would be placed on the stable support, regardless of the side where it would be put (i.e., on the dominant or non-dominant side). We expected the opposite for the bad item. The results of two experiments are consistent with this prediction and support the claim that the consequences of motor action bias the hedonic connotation of our dominant side.

Valence-space compatibility effects depend on situated motor fluency in both right- and left-handers.

According to the body specificity hypothesis, the way we interact with our environment participates in our conceptualization of concepts and word meanings. For instance, valence is associated to horizontal space because of the motor fluency by which one acts with one's dominant hand. We propose that the decisive factor in the compatibility effects between valence and lateral actions is the interaction between the fluency of response movement and the situational constraints of the task. In a valence judgement task with positive and negative words, right-handers (Experiment 1) and left-handers (Experiment 2) responded with lateralized actions of either their dominant or their nondominant hand. To do so, we used a response device that was either congruent or noncongruent with the fluency of the response hand. Results highlighted that when the response device was congruent with the fluency of the responding hand, response times to positive evaluations were shorter than those to negative evaluations. Conversely, when the response device was noncongruent with the fluency of the responding hand, we observed faster responses for negative evaluations than for positive evaluations. Furthermore, we obtained similar patterns for right- and left-handers, supporting the idea that compatibility effects are driven by the situated fluency of the responding hand.

Biases in evaluation of neutral words due to motor compatibility effect.

This study aims to demonstrate the effect of action fluency on emotional evaluation, specifically to show that neutral words can be evaluated positively or negatively depending on motor activity and evaluative setting. Right-handers naturally tend to associate positive (negative) valence to the right (left) part of space (Casasanto, 2009). We extend these associations to lateralized behaviors by studying the combined effect of motor fluency of lateral arm movements and the evaluative scale on the subjective evaluation of neutral words. Three experiments evidenced that, for right-handers, the realization of fluent rightward arm movements and the use of an evaluative scale congruent with their valence/laterality associations (left negative, right positive) led to a positive evaluation of neutral words, while non-fluent leftward movements and an incongruent scale led to a negative evaluation. This study demonstrates that emotion-action associations are experience-based, and influenced by functional and situational constraints.

Color perception involves color representations firstly at a semantic level and then at a lexical level.

Studies and models have suggested that color perception first involves access to semantic representations of color. This result leads to two questions: (1) is knowledge able to influence the perception of color when associated with a color? and (2) can the perception of color really involve only semantic representations? We developed an experiment where participants have to discriminate the color of a patch (yellow vs. green). The target patch is preceded either by a black-and-white line drawing or by a word representing a natural object associated with the same or a different color (banana vs. frog). We expected a priming effect for pictures because, with a 350-ms SOA, they only involve access to semantic representations of color, whereas words seem only elicit an access to lexical representations. As expected, we found a priming effect for pictures, but also for words. Moreover, we found a general slowdown of response times in the word-prime-condition suggesting the need of an additional processing step to produce priming. In a second experiment, we manipulated the SOA in order to preclude a semantic access in the word-prime-condition that could explain the additional step of processing. We also found a priming effect, suggesting that interaction with perception occurs at a lexical level and the additional step occurs at a color perception level. In the discussion, we develop a new model of color perception assuming that color perception involves access to semantic representations and then access to lexical representations.

Action compatibility effects are hedonically marked and have incidental consequences on affective judgment.

Recent results from Cannon, Hayes, and Tipper (2010) have established that the Action Compatibility Effect (ACE) is hedonically marked and elicits a genuine positive reaction. In this work, we aim to show that the hedonic marking of the ACE has incidental consequences on affective judgment. For this, we used the affective priming paradigm principle (for a review, see Musch & Klauer, 2003): participants have to respond, as quickly as they can, regarding the pleasantness or unpleasantness character of a target word. In the priming phase, we do not present an affective stimulus; however, we present two different graspable objects, one after the other. The handles of the graspable objects are shown either both on the same side (i.e., perceptual action compatibility) or not (i.e., perceptual action incompatibility). In addition, the orientation of the handles of the objects are either compatible (i.e., action compatibility) or not (i.e., action compatibility) with the response hand used for the word evaluation. Consistent with our hypothesis, participants responded faster to positive words after perceptual action compatibility and action compatibility (thus demonstrating the ACE) than after incompatibility conditions.

[Emotion and incarnated cognition: the driving dimension of the verbal answers "yes" and "no"]. / Emotion et cognition incarnée: la dimension motrice des réponses verbales "oui" et "non".

Theories of embodied cognition make the hypothesis that all cognitive operations, including high-level ones, are fundamentally rooted in the current state of the body and in the sensory-motor systems of the brain. Related experimental work has been concerned solely with the link between automatic cognitive processes and motor responses. This link has never been supposed to result from the production of verbal responses, such as the responses "yes" and "no." However, a great many tasks require a verbal response along with a motor response. In this study, we have demonstrated that cognitive and automatic evaluation of the valence of words involves a close link with the motor responses of "pull" and "push", as well as the verbal responses "yes" and "no" when the task requires answering "yes" or "no" whether there is the letter "a" in a word. Moreover, the results obtained show that the verbal responses "yes" and "no" interact with the motor responses of "pull" and "push". This interaction supports the idea that positive and negative verbal responses present a motor component, as contemplated in embodied cognition theories (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999; Scorolli & Borghi, 2007; Barsalou, 2008).

The embodied cognition theory and the motor component of "yes" and "no" verbal responses.

Most of the experiments which give theories of embodied cognition their empirical anchorage only take into consideration the motor responses induced by the task or the motor component of the visual stimulus. And yet, these motor responses are often associated with a linguistic answer. Our hypothesis is that "YES" and "NO" verbal responses have a motor component. In a first experiment we showed that producing a verbal response (YES vs. NO) involves motor planning (pushing vs. pulling): participants push a lever more quickly when they have to answer "yes" than "no", and conversely, they pull a lever more quickly when they have to answer "no" than "yes". Moreover, in a second experiment, we showed that perceiving the words "YES" and "NO", on its own, leads to the same motor planning than when "yes" and "no" answers actually have to be produced. Participants detect the word "YES" faster when they have to push a lever than when they have to pull it and conversely they detect the word "NO" faster when they have to pull the lever than when they have to push it down. These results are discussed in reference to "online" and "offline embodiment" concepts and to the cognitive linguistic theories.

[Connection between the evaluation of positive or negative valence and verbal responses to a lexical decision making task]. / Etude du lien entre l'evaluation de la valence et les réponses verbales dans une tâche de décision lexicale: les réponses oui et non sont-elles des réponses affectives?

Evaluation of the positive or negative valence of a stimulus is an activity that is part of any emotional experience that has been mostly studied using the affective priming paradigm. When the prime and the target have the same valence (e.g. positive prime and positive target), the target response is facilitated as a function of opposing valence conditions (e.g. negative prime and positive target). These studies show that this evaluation is automatic but depends on the nature of the task's implied response because the priming effects are only observed for positive responses, not for negative responses. This result was explained in automatic judgmental tendency model put forth by Abelson and Rosenberg (1958) and Klauer and Stern (1992). In this model, affective priming assumes there is an overlap between both responses, the first response taking precedence as a function of the prime-target valence, and the second response one that is required by the task. We are assuming that another type of response was not foreseen under this model. In fact, upon activating the valence for each of the prime-target elements, two preliminary responses would be activated before the response on the prime-target valence relationship. These responses are directly linked to the prime and target evaluation independently of the prime-target relationship. This hypothesis can be linked to the larger hypothesis whereby the evaluative process is related to two distinct motivational systems corresponding to approach and avoidance behaviour responses (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1990; Neuman & Strack, 2000; Cacciopo, Piester & Bernston, 1993). In this study, we use the hypothesis that when a word leads to a positive valence evaluation, this favours a positive verbal response and inversely, a negative valence word favours a negative response. We are testing this hypothesis outside the affective priming paradigm to study to what extent evaluating a word, even when it is not primed, activates both motivational systems and consequently, positive verbal responses for approach and negative responses for avoidance. To validate this hypothesis, we are re-using both versions of the lexical decision task proposed by Wentura (2000). The classic version leads participants to a positive response for words, and the modified version leads to a no response. This experiment, carried out with thirty-two participants, measures the influence on response time of two experimental factors, the intrasubject valence of words (positive and negative) and the inter-subject factor (yes and no responses to words). Results show an interaction between the type of response and word valence. It is temporally more onerous to give a no response to positive words than to negative words. This result confirms that there is a direct relation between the evaluation of a valence stimulus and the response to this stimulus, a relation that had up to now been essentially observed with motor behaviours, and more rarely with verbal responses. We propose integrating the existence of this link between evaluation and verbal response (yes and no) in interpreting the effects of affective priming.