Understanding with the body? Testing the role of verb relative embodiment across tasks at the interface of language and memory

Abstract

Multiple representation accounts of conceptual knowledge argue that information associated with sensory-motor experience, in addition to pure linguistic information, contributes to word processing. A number of issues, however, remain under-investigated, including the extent to which these dimensions affect verb processing (rather than nouns), especially in languages other than English, and their role across different tasks along the language-memory continuum. Here, we collected ratings for a verb-specific dimension linked to bodily experience (relative embodiment, RE) for 647 Italian verbs and we tested its effects in three tasks differently modulating semantic activation and memory processes (i.e., lexical decision, grammatical decision, and memory recognition). Our results showed reliable influences of RE during lexical decision and memory recognition, but not in grammatical decision, possibly due to the Italian morphological richness. The cross-task analysis showed that RE effects were substantially higher in memory recognition compared to lexical decision, indicating that semantic and episodic processes interact at the interface of language and memory. Overall, results support the flexible and context-dependent role of sensory-motor and bodily-related experience during verb processing, pointing also to language-specific factors and implications for the organization of declarative memory.