Abstract
Previous research has shown that photographs of manipulable objects (i.e., those that can be grasped for use with one hand) are named more quickly than non-manipulable objects when they have been matched for object familiarity and age of acquisition. The current study tested the hypothesis that the amount of visual detail present in object depictions moderates these “manipulability” effects on object naming. The same objects were presented as photographs and line-drawings during a speeded naming task. Forty-six participants named 222 objects depicted in both formats. A significant object depiction (photographs versus line drawing) by manipulability interaction confirmed our hypothesis that manipulable objects are identified more quickly when shown as photographs; whereas, non-manipulable objects are identified equally quickly when shown as photographs versus line-drawings. These results indicate that factors such as surface detail and texture moderate the role of “action” and/or “manipulability” effects during object identification tasks, and suggest that photographs of manipulable objects are associated with more embodied representations of those objects than when they are depicted as line-drawings.
Highlights
The theory of embodied cognition has increasingly gained support in explaining much of human cognition over the last decade
The results showed a significant interaction between Manipulability and Depiction [F(1) = 9.28], suggesting a bigger Manipulability effect for photographs of objects compared to line-drawings
Follow-up post hoc analyses did not support a significant main effect of Manipulability when just photographs were considered [F(1) = 1.23]. They did support a significant main effect of object depiction for manipulable objects [F(1) = 25.47], but not non-manipulable objects [F(1) = 1.09]. These results indicated that manipulable objects were named more quickly as photographs than line drawings, but there was no difference in the time to name non-manipulable objects based on object depiction
Summary
The theory of embodied cognition has increasingly gained support in explaining much of human cognition over the last decade (for a recent review, see Borghi and Pecher, 2011). We have recently shown that photographs of manipulable objects (i.e., those that can be grasped for use with one hand) are named more quickly, but categorized at a higher level more slowly, than non-manipulable objects (when matched for object familiarity and age of acquisition (AoA); Salmon et al, 2014; see Filliter et al, 2005). We interpreted this “manipulability effect” as evidence for differential access of manipulable versus non-manipulable object representations due to involvement of distributed motor associations. In the present experiment we investigate whether line-drawings activate embodied object representations to the same degree as more realistic photographic depictions
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