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The effect of implied orientation derived from verbal context on picture recognition
1Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1270, USA. stanfiel@psy.fsu.edu or zwaan@psy.fsu.edu
Psychological Science
|May 9, 2001
Summary
People mentally simulate object orientation based on descriptions, supporting perceptual symbol systems theory. This suggests mental representations mirror physical object characteristics.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Cognitive theories propose two main symbol systems: perceptual (analogue symbol-referent relationship) and amodal (arbitrary relationship).
- Perceptual symbol theories posit that mental representations, or simulations, reflect an object's physical attributes.
- Amodal theories do not predict that mental representations should mirror physical characteristics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the hypothesis that individuals mentally represent object orientation implied by verbal descriptions, as predicted by perceptual symbol theories.
- To investigate whether cognitive representations of objects incorporate physical properties like orientation.
Main Methods:
- Participants read sentences implicitly suggesting an object's orientation (vertical or horizontal).
- Recognition latencies for pictures of the object in both orientations were measured.
- Response times were compared between pictures matching the implied orientation and those that did not.
Main Results:
- Participants responded significantly faster to object pictures that matched the orientation suggested by the preceding sentence.
- This indicates that the mental representation included the object's orientation.
Conclusions:
- The findings support perceptual symbol systems theories.
- Mental representations appear to simulate or reflect physical characteristics of objects, such as orientation.
- This challenges amodal theories that posit arbitrary symbol-referent relationships in cognition.
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