Abstract
Theories of embodied cognition propose that sensorimotor experience is essential to learning, representing, and accessing conceptual information. Embodied effects have been observed in early child development and adult cognitive processing, but there has been less research examining the role of embodiment in later childhood. We conducted two experiments to test whether degree of sensorimotor experience modulates children’s word learning. In Experiment 1, 5-year-old children learned labels for 10 unfamiliar objects in one of six learning conditions, which varied in how much sensorimotor experience and information about the objects children received. Children’s word learning was assessed with a recognition test. Results indicated that there was no effect of learning condition on recognition accuracy, as children performed equally well in all conditions. In Experiment 2, we modified the stimuli to emphasize the sensory features of the objects; 5-year-old children learned labels for these objects in one of two learning conditions. Once again, there was no effect of learning condition on children’s recognition accuracy performance. Overall, children’s word learning was not modulated by the extent to which they had sensorimotor experience with the labelled objects. As such, the results place some limits on the role of embodiment in language learning.
Highlights
According to theories of embodied cognition, sensorimotor experience is an important aspect of gaining, representing, and accessing conceptual knowledge (Wilson 2002)
These t-tests indicated that children in all six learning conditions performed significantly better than chance on the recognition task: active interaction t(29) = 6.64, p < 0.001, d = 1.21; active interaction with function t(29) = 3.53, p < 0.01, d = 0.64; observe interaction t(29) = 3.90, p < 0.01, d = 0.71; object observation t(29) = 4.26, p < 0.001, d = 0.78; object observation with fact t(29) = 4.97, p < 0.001, d = 0.91; object observation with function t(29) = 5.34, p < 0.001, d = 0.97
Post hoc multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni procedure were conducted to examine differences in manipulation statements between the six learning conditions. These analyses revealed that children in the active interaction condition made significantly more comments about how the objects could be manipulated or what they could be used for (M = 4.80, SD = 6.24) compared to children in the object observation condition (M = 1.07, SD = 2.27), t(58) = 3.08, p < 0.05, d = 0.79
Summary
According to theories of embodied cognition, sensorimotor experience is an important aspect of gaining, representing, and accessing conceptual knowledge (Wilson 2002). The role of embodiment in adult language processing has been studied quite extensively (e.g., Fischer and Zwaan 2008), and sensory experiences are considered important to infants’ early learning and development (Laakso 2011). Less is known about the influence of embodied experiences in childhood and whether sensorimotor experiences can help older children learn new words and concepts (for a review see Wellsby and Pexman 2014a). The focus of the current research is on embodied cognition in a developmental context, on how sensorimotor experiences might influence children’s developing linguistic and conceptual systems.
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