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The influence of bodily experience on children's language processing
Michele Wellsby1, Penny M Pexman
1Department of Psychology, University of Calgary.
Topics in Cognitive Science
|July 26, 2014
Summary
Children aged 8-9 years and adults show faster word recognition for high Body-Object Interaction (BOI) words. This effect, linked to age and reading skills, emerges around age 8, indicating bodily experience influences word recognition development.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- The Body-Object Interaction (BOI) variable quantifies ease of physical interaction with word referents.
- A facilitory BOI effect (faster, accurate responses for high BOI words) is established in adults during language tasks.
- The developmental trajectory of this BOI effect in children remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the emergence and development of the Body-Object Interaction effect in children.
- To compare the BOI effect in children of different age groups with that of adults.
- To explore the relationship between the BOI effect, age, and reading skills in children.
Main Methods:
- A word naming task was administered to 50 children (6-9 years) and 21 adults.
- Participants responded to high and low Body-Object Interaction (BOI) words.
- Response times and accuracy were analyzed to identify the BOI effect.
Main Results:
- Younger children (6-7 years) did not exhibit a significant BOI effect.
- Older children (8-9 years) demonstrated a facilitory BOI effect, similar to adults.
- The magnitude of the BOI effect in children correlated positively with age and reading proficiency.
Conclusions:
- The influence of bodily experience, as measured by BOI, on visual word recognition emerges around 8 years of age.
- Reading skills and chronological age are significant factors in the development of the BOI effect.
- This study highlights a critical developmental period for the integration of embodied cognition into word recognition processes.
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